One of the oldest cricket playing schools in the country is Trinity College. Before the second World War Trinity not only produced several top class cricketers but also produced several invincible teams. Their first inter school cricket match was in 1893 with Royal College. Then in 1898 they played S. Thomas’ College, in 1903 Wesley College and 1908 St. Peter’s College, Colombo.
In the present 2017/18 inter-school cricket season, Trinity College under the captaincy of Hasitha Boyagoda promises to be an action packed team. According to the Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association 36 teams will again battle it out in 4 groups, with each team playing 8 tournament games. The 4 groups were seeded from points gained in the group stages during last
2016/17 season. Apart from the 8 matches, each school is expected to nominate 5 more traditional matches to be considered for the player and team performances at the end of the season.
Schools can play as many matches as possible to continue their traditional encounters. This time Trinity is in Group A, with teams such as Thurstan College, Colombo, St. Sebastian’s College, Moratuwa, St. Thomas College, Matara, Dharmasoka College, Ambalangoda, Moratuwa Maha Vidyalaya, D.S Senanayake College, Colombo, St. Benedict’s College, Kotahena and Bandaranaike College, Gampaha.
This season Trinity is fielding a talented and experienced side with several of last season’s players. At present too they are doing well thanks to the present principal Andrew Fowler-Watt who has given cricket his best support, together with MIC D.D. Kulatunga, POG Shane de Silva, head coach Kavinda Jayasuriya, Assistant coach and Naveen Ekanayake. Rushan Jaleel is the head of Development Strategies.
Boyagoda a memver of the national under 19 team leads the Trinity side this season. H.R.B. Boyagoda a Sri Lanka under 19 player representing country in the 12th ICC under 19 World Cup Tournament performed well a few days back in New Zealand with the bat.
He had the unique distinction of scoring a 100 in the opening game and leading the side to win the first match of the season against St. Servatius College. Last season he gave a superb display with the bat. He is also a good bowler. Much is expected from this talented youngster, who missed a few school games this season as he was a member of the national u-19 squad which toured New Zealand. His deputy is talented all-rounder Trevon Percival Weerasuriya.
The rest of the squad are: Thisaru Dilshan, Hasintha Jayasuriya, Poorna Wansekara, Vimukthi Nethumal, Himanga Suriyampola, Ruvin Peiris, Kalana de Zoysa, Avishka Senadeera, Tanka Chandrarathna, Ashan Lokukatiya, Uvindu Wimaladharma, Osanda Herath, Pubudu Bandara, Chanuka Kumarasinghe, Abishek Anandakumara, Jeff Weerasinghe, Agbo Amarasinghe, Kavindu Dias, Umair Raizan, Narendranath Asokumar, Demian Tennakoon, Deemantha Bandara, Mohamed Talha, Kaveen Shasidaran and Kevin Perera.
From their full fixture of eighteen games Trinity have already played 12 matches from which they registered five victories and has drawn seven matches. Their victories were against St. Servatius College, Matara, Bandaranaike Vidyalaya, Gampaha, St. Benedict’s College, Moratu Vidayalaya and Wesley College, while the other matches have ended in draws.
The matches yet to be played are vs Ananda College in Colombo February 2nd - 3rd, vs S. Thomas’ College 16th - 17th at Asgiriya, vs Royal College at Asgiriya, Big Match vs St. Anthony’s College March 9th -10th in Kandy, and the one-day game scheduled to be played on March 17th vs St. Anthony’s College.