The official logo in conjunction with the ‘Battle of the Maroons’ cricket encounter between Ananda College and Nalanda College was re-launched after a lapse of 15 years at the Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC) on Wednesday (10) in the presence of many past players and officials of the two schools.
This annual cricket encounter will be played for the 94th time at the SSC ground on March 2 and 3.
If not for the Second World War and the Covid 19 pandemic the encounter should have marked a hundred years.
The one day encounter will be played on March 17 at the SSC.
Nalanda College was established in 1924 as a branch of Ananda College which started in 1886. On the 39th anniversary of Ananda, Nalanda College was registered as a separate College on November 1, 1924.
A friendly cricket match was played for the first time between the two schools in 1924. Two years later the Ananda-Nalanda big match was officially started in 1926.
Ananda College has won 12 encounters while Nalanda has won only seven out of the 93 encounters that has been completed.
Both these schools have produced many leading national cricketers in the past. Bandula Warnapura wrote history in letters of gold by becoming the first to captain the Test team. Arjuna Ranatunga from Ananda College made history by becoming the first captain to win a World Cup for Sri Lanka.
It is also interesting to note that most of the players that won the World Cup in 1996 were from Ananda and Nalanda Colleges.
Arjuna Ranatunga, Roshan Mahanama, Asanka Gurusinghe and Kumara Dharmasena are among them.
Sidath Wettimuny, Roshan Mahanama, Marvan Attapattu and Mahela Jayawardena are part of the history as the Ananda-Nalanda captains in the country’s Test cricket.
The principal of Ananda College, DM Lal Dissanayake said that he was happy to see the past national cricketers at this occasion.
The principal of Nalanda College, Champika Silva also expressed the same feelings at the media briefing.
Arjuna Ranatunga said that the team had a close relationship during the World Cup tournament and that helped them to win the Cup.
“The coaches at school were like fathers to us who taught us not only cricket but how to conduct ourselves as well”, said Ranatunga.
Brendon Kuruppu who scored the first Test double century said that his life changed in 1975 and was happy to be an Anandian and hopes that they can see a good game of cricket at the 94th encounter.
Defence Secretary Kamal Gunaratne was also present on the occasion.
