Old Boys from Sydney and Melbourne make cricket tour
View(s):A contingent of 14 past cricketers from Royal College, S. Thomas’ College and Jaffna Central, representing Old Boys of Royal College in Sydney and Melbourne, is set to make their third over-50 Cricket Tour to Sri Lanka this month.
The team, led by Sam Lawton, a former Royalist, will play five games during their stay in Sri Lanka at different locations around the country. The team includes 10 former Royal College cricketers, with Lawton as skipper and Kingsley Rajasingham, Gane Sanmugaratnam, Ransi Fernando, Ray Ramanan, Gunaratnam Kandakumar, Radesh Rajaratnam, Shanti Kumar, Janaka Subasinghe and Prasanna Kariyawasam as the manager.
The three former Thomians in the side are Lasantha Peris, Stanley Jayanthakumar and Lakshman Thurairatnam, while Rajan Sivarajah will be the only former player from Jaffna Central in the unit.
They will begin their tour by playing against Maris Stella College in Negombo on December 16, followed by the second game on December 17 against the Old Boys of Ananda College at Seenigama. Both matches will begin at 2.00pm on the respective days.
On December 19, the touring party will take on the Ceylon Masters Cricket Association at the P. Sara Oval in Colombo from 11.00am with Jagath Fernando, the captain of the Royal College cricket team in 1971 gracing the game as the chief guest. The Old Royalists will meet the Old Boys of St. Anthony’s College at Katugastota on December 21 with the match set to start at 11.00am. The final match of the tour will be against the Old Rajans, set to be played from 10.30am at Lake View in Kandy on December 23.
The Old Boys of Royal College in Sydney and Melbourne made similar tours in 2011 and 2014, which were successfully conducted with greater camaraderie.