The people of Moratuwa are not only crazy about this noble game, but they have a thorough knowledge of the subject, they love and always enjoy a good game of cricket, they expect fairplay and sportsmanship on and off the field. Since the introduction of the game people who have wielded the willow and thousands of Moratuwites who have never held a bat enjoy every minute of the game. They discuss cricket, read about the game, watch and some may be dreaming cricket. Cricket is a way of life for Moratuwites.

Two school cricketers of this cricket crazy town have brought honour to their schools, St Sebastian’s College and Moratu Vidyalaya by being the Runner-up of the All Island Schools and the Outstation Schools in the recently conducted Observer Schoolboy Cricketer contest of the year 2012.

They are captains of St Sebastian’s College and Moratu Vidyalaya both are fine all rounders of the game Amila Aponso and Sanka Ramesh respectively. Amila represented Sri Lanka Schools under 19 team earlier and for the under 19 world cup this year too.

Sanka who performed well in all departments of the game for two consecutive years and in the under 23 inter-club cricket tournament conducted by Sri Lanka Cricket was unlucky for not getting selected for the world cup team and no one knows why he was not picked and it is not very clear that how Moratu Vidyalaya is rated as an outstation school as they are playing inter-school matches with the leading schools and has performed well during the past.

It has gone something wrong somewhere when the groupings were done. It is high time the authorities concerned look into this grave injustice.

Amila has been representing his alma-mater for four years and a coloursman and he was a member of the Big Match winning team 2011 against Cambrians. He is a left arm orthodox leg spin bowler and a top order batsman. Last year he took 107 wickets and scored 582 runs. He joined the select band of Sebestianites who took more than 100 wickets.

The others who claimed more than hundred wickets are Ajith Cooray and Nimesh Perera twice. This year under his captaincy the big match was a tame draw and he led Sebs to victory in the limited overs game.

Sanka commenced his cricket career at De Soysa Maha Vidyalaya, Angulana, Moratuwa and his first coach was Sabu Weerasuriya. When he joined Moratu Vidyalaya, his talents were picked up immediately by Prasanna Dissanayake who was the coach of Ajantha Mendis at Vidyalaya.

In the year 2011 and 2012 he claimed 103 wickets each and year 2011 he scored 1,167 runs and leading his alma-mater in 2012 scored more than 900 runs.

He is undoubtedly the best allround cricketer produced from vidyalaya during their 78 year old cricket history. Also he joined the one thousand brigade with the other illustrious cricketers who passed the thousand mark. He had one of the best performances against St Sebastians when he scored a century and took a match bag of ten wickets.

In the game with Zahira College he scored 215 runs in the second innings and saved his school from certain defeat and thus he joins the two hundred brigade along with Ranjith Fernando, Chandana Mahesh (twice), Lucky Rogers, Dammika Wickramanayake, Sampath Perera, Amal Peiris and Chatura Hemakumara.

In his first year itself playing for Singhalese Sports Club he took 29 wickets with a match bag of 10 for 87 vs Colombo Cricket Club.

Both of them have left their schools and representing club cricket and our fervent wish is they will play for their country very soon which is the sole ambition of any young cricketer.

We salute these two young cricketers for bringing honour and glory not only to their respective schools but to their native town Moratuwa.