Roy-Tho in September pending ministry’s endorsements
The country’s oldest big match, ‘The Royal-Thomian’, is in the final stage of needing the nod from the Education and the Health Ministries for the elite encounter to be played at Sooriyawewa, Hambantota, on September 9, 10 and 11, behind closed gates.
A highly placed source from the Thomian camp revealed to the Sunday Times exclusively yesterday (24), the joint organising committee (JOC) has already written to both the ministries mid this week and are due to get the official good-to-go by the end of the month.
He revealed both the teams will be going into the bio-secure bubble a fortnight prior to the match, which would be preceded by three PCR tests.
This edition’s Roy-Tho has already seen enough stop-start’s, entirely due to the prevailing pandemic. However, now, the JOC is also wary and vigilant, owing to the newfound — Delta Variant — in the air, anything is still possible anytime.
The cream of the crop contest is always worked off inside the first two weekends of March, under the normal circumstances. However, this time, under the new normal guidelines, it was pushed to April 8, 9, 10 with the official launch sans the captains and coaches from both the schools done-and-dusted and it was all set for the show.
However, only days prior to the game, as many as a dozen Thomians were tested positive for Covid-19, including that of a player from the playing XI. At the time of positive cases, Thomians were stationed at a hotel by the school by the sea, while their counterparts were at a high-end hotel managed by a reputed establishment in the hospitality industry. It was then, coupled with a nationwide lockdown, the three-day tussle was rescheduled indefinitely.
As it now stands, the longest-running schools’ big match locally, and globally, only the second longest, is once again ready to take centre stage in September.