The annual Saints’ Quadrangular tournament is a premier event in the calendar of 4 Catholic schools in Sri Lanka, namely St. Anthony’s College, Kandy, St. Benedict’s College, Colombo, St. Joseph’s College, Colombo and St. Peter’s College, Bambalapitiya.
This year the Golden Jubilee tournament is organized and conducted by St. Anthony’s College Old Boys Association Colombo Branch said Ranjith Peiris, the President of the Saints Quadrangular at the media briefing held at the Old Bens Sports Club.He also said The Saints Quadrangular committee has decided to introduce the ‘Ranjith Samarasekara Memorial Trophy’ to the overall winners of the tournament from this year on wards to honour the services of Old Antonian Late Ranjith Samarasekara who was instrumental in convincing the four schools to continue this tournament annually.
Many former National players in Cricket, Rugby and Basketball produced by these four schools will be in action during the two day tournament.In 1963, during the Diamond Jubilee of St. Benedict’s College, all schools in the country were invited for a cricket tournament, but co-incidently it was only the above leading Catholic schools were present for the tournament. Since then, this tournament has been a flagship event of the four premier Catholic schools in Sri Lanka. Old Boys and sports teams gather once a year as a tradition for camaraderie, fellowship and relive the glory days. Originally the tournament was played as a two-day encounter but as years progressed, it was decided to convert this to a more exciting limited over encounter.
Since then, for 49 years this tradition has continued and the tournament has seen some big names representing Sri Lanka playing for their alma -mater over the years.
In 2002, the organizers introduced a 25 over tournament for players above the age of 40, which enhanced the true spirit of Saints’ Quadrangular as many cricketers from the yesteryear got an opportunity to represent their beloved school. In 2004, Basketball was introduced to the Quadrangular fraternity. This too is a keenly contested tournament as these schools do enjoy a rich tradition of producing highly skilled basketball players in Sri Lanka. A tournament which started with Cricket has now grown into a sports carnival with the introduction of the 7-a-side Rugby tournament in 2014. Today, the Saint’s Quadrangular tournament sees leading National and club level players produced by these four great institutions representing their alma mater in three major sports across four tournaments.
The four Schools take great pride in organizing this event as every year one school takes turn in hosting the event. The Quadrangular weekend, as it is known now, is a much looked forward to event filled with great sportsmanship, entertainment and fellowship. The Quadrangular Trophy is presented to the winners of the two Cricket tournaments while ‘Very Rev.Fr. Joe E. Wickramasinghe’ Trophy is presented to the Basketball winners and a ‘Challenge Trophy’ is presented to the Rugby winners. This year will see the 50th Quadrangular tournament taking place and may this tradition go from strength to strength, renewing friendships, camaraderie and sportsmanship.
Golden Jubilee Saints Quadrangular TournamentThis years tournament will be hosted by St. Anthony’s College, Kandy Old Boys Association Colombo Branch and will be worked off during the 26th/27th weekend of August 2017 in Kandy.