It rained ‘Sixers’ at ROCA Cricket 6s in Matara
Pramodya Wickremasinghe
It rained sixers, endangering commuters and vehicles on the Matara-Akuressa Road when Rahula’s cricketers of decades gone by, gathered again at their school ground for a hard ball 6-a-side Cricket tournament organised by the Rahula Old Cricketers Association (ROCA) recently. Sixteen teams entered the fray in 2 Groups. Group A consisted of veterans who represented Rahula in the 1980′s and 1990′s, while Group B consisted of the not-so-old who represented Rahula. Elders’ Champions, Elders’ Strikers, Elders’ Rockers, Elders’ Fighters, Ninety Tigers, Ninety Warriors, Ninety Lions and Ninety Fighters contributed to the deluge of sixers in Group A, while Brothers, Rahal Lions, Blue Star, 2005, Lambandi Rahula, 2006, Rahula Millennium and Rahula Lions played in Group B.
Elders’ Fighters led by Anjan Gamage, a wily spinner who was the first Rahulatie to capture 100 wickets in a school Cricket season, and strengthened by Chandika Sirimanna, Piyasiri Abeywickrema, Pushpakumara Bethage, Upul Geethapriya and H.G. Nandasiri who represented Rahula in 1980/81, walked away with the Sujith Kulathunge Memorial Challenge Cup, while in Group B, the 2006 batch carried away the Damayantha de Silva Memorial Challenge Cup. The award presentation was made at the
“ROCA Nite” and Fellowship dinner held at Hotel Hemalie later in the evening, at which, Chairman of Nipolac Paint, Raja Hewabowala was the Chief Guest, while Principal of Rahula College, Francis Welage and Pamodya Wickremasinghe were the Guests of Honour. ”ROCA Cricket 6s” and “ROCA Nite” was organised by the ROCA, to reunite all past Cricketers of Rahula and to raise funds for an Indoor Cricket Net for our “alma mater”, emphasised chairman of the organising committee, Gemunu de Silva, in his address at the awards ceremony.