Kadugannawa MMV unbeaten

Kadugannawa MMV led by Nadeep Ranga Kumara has emerged as the only unbeaten school in the Under 15 All Island Horlicks Trophy Cricket Tournament.

"We have now entered the final round of the contest and are confident of doing well in the remaining matches", said cricket coach and master-in-charge Amarajeeva Dissanayake to The Sunday Times.

Out of 251 schools participating in the tournament, Kadugannawa MMV beat Galagedera MMV and Gampaha Wickremabahu MMV in the first round and followed it up by victories over Peradeniya MMV, Mawanella Baduriya MMV, Polgahawela St.Bernard's Vidyalaya and Kingswood College Kandy.

In the final round they have so far overcome challenges from St. Thomas' Matale and Madawela Madina MMV. In the match against Madawela Madina MMV, Chandana Kumara of Kadugannawa excelled himself by scoring a hard hit 101.

Summarized scores in the final round:

Kadugannawa MMV beat St.Thomas'Matale by 4 wkts at Matale.

St.Thomas' Matale - 158 for 9 in 50 overs (N.M.Ekanayake 51, Chinthaka Vimal Ranga 32; Shakila Siriwardena 2 for 30, Priyantha Perera 2 for 32).

Kadugannawa MMV - 170 for 6 in 40 overs (Lasantha Abeykoon 47, Mahesh Jayasinghe 31 n.o, Ranil Jayawardena 22 n.o; Dhanushka Bandara 4 for 33)

Kadugannawa MV beat Madawala Madina MMV by 182 runs. at Kegalle.

Kadugannawa MMV - 255 for 6 in 48 overs (Chandana Kumara 101, Sanjeeva Weerasinghe 40, Athula Rajapakse 29, Dhanushka Karunatilleke 28, Mahesh Jayasinghe 25 n.o; M.M.Azhar 2 for 50, S.M.Hafeel 2 for 57).

Madawawala Madina MMV - 73 in 32.4 overs (Mohammed Farzan 10; Shakila Siriwardena 4 for 20, Athula Rajapakse 3 for 19)

Fims approved sports medicine course for doctors in Sri Lanka

The Sri Lanka Sports Medicine Association has obtained approval to conduct a 'Team Physician Development Course', which is to be held in September, in Colombo. This course has been accredited by the International Federation of Sports Medicine, as a FIMS course.

The team Physician Course will take 3 days, and will include 16 hours of lectures with 3 workshops. The teaching faculty will consist of Consultants and Specialists of SLSMA, and there will also be visiting lecturers from abroad who will include a FIMS Education Commission lecturer from Oman, a FIMS lecturer from Hong Kong and a consultant from Australia.

The course will be supervised by a lecturer from the Education Commission of FIMS who will be in attendance, and ensure that the FIMS International Education standards are met.

Doctors who complete this course will be entitled to attend advanced FIMS courses abroad which are conducted by the American College of Sports Medicine and the European Chapter of FIMS. This is the first time that a National Association has been given accreditation to conduct a FIMS course in this region.

This milestone was achieved when the President of SLSMA Dr. C. Thurairajah submitted the course contents and syllabus of the Team Physician Course of SLSMA at the XXVIth Sports Medicine Congress held in Orlando, Florida, U.S.A. in June 1998. The accreditation was awarded by Dr. Lyle Micheli, Chairman of the Education Commission of FIMS and was granted by Prof . Eduardo de Rosa, President of FIMS and endorsed by Prof. Kai Ming Chan, President of the Asian Federation of Sports Medicine, on behalf of FIMS and AFSM. Dr. C.Thurairajah who was in the Education Commission of AFSM from 1992 to 1996, is presently in the Executive Committee of AFSM for the period 1996 to 2000. This achievement must be considered as a significant landmark for Sports Medicine in Sri Lanka.

This course will ensure that the doctors who accompany teams abroad, and provide medical care to our sportsmen and sportswomen will acquire the expertise and the qualification in Sports Medicine that is required for the job.

Doctors who wish to enrol on this course should contact Prof. Rohan Jayasekera, Chairman Educational Committee SLSMA, Faculty of Medicine, Colombo, Group Capt. Dr. Nimal H. Gunaratne, Secretary of SLSMA, Air Force Base, Katunayake or Major General Dr. C. Thurairajah, President SLSMA, Military Hospital, Colombo.

It is expected that doctors from the South Asia Region would also apply for this course. This course will realise a long felt need for Sri Lanka, that will help our sportsmen to achieve success in international competitions in sports.

This has been made possible only because of the commitment for professionalism in the medical care for our athletes, by the doctors in the Sri Lanka Sports Medicine Association

Kumar calls for more attention on spinners

By Marlon Fernandopulle

Former Colts CC captain and opening batsman Kumar Ramanathan called on Cricket Board authorities to plan out an effective infrastructure to nurture and develop talented spinners in the country.

"Let's develop what we are good at. Have a programme to unearth high quality spinners and get them trained by an expert or send them abroad", said Kumar Ramanathan in an exclusive interview with The Sunday Times.

The former Benedictine and Colts CC skipper who has also represented the Board President's XI against visiting teams migrated to Australia in the early 'eighties and was back here to catch his thoughts on a few aspects of the game.

Excerpts from the interview:

Q. It has been 15 years since you migrated to Australia. Can you tell us what you have been doing.

A. I have been a coach cum player for Parkwood Cricket Club, Melbourne for four years and continue to coach the side which plays in the sub-district level. It is from this level that players graduate to the district level and then to the Sheffield Shield.

Q. As a coach what emphasis would you put to the laws of the game?

A. It is very important that all players are well aware of the laws. This will prevent unnecessary pressures on the umpires due to excessive appealing (especially for LBW decisions) and also sort out alleged throwing controversies. We need to have regular seminars starting from school level to educate players on the updated laws of the game.

Q. What type of wickets should Sri Lanka prepare for Tests?

A. Ideally the wickets should help the fast bowlers in the first two days and help the spinners later on. Unless this is done, we will never be able to promote fast bowling and produce genuine seamers. In addition when we prepare dead tracks,it can also contribute to injury to the fast bowlers as they have to put in that extra strain to get a wicket. That's what has happened to Chaminda Vaas.

Q. But do you think our batsmen will find it difficult on such wickets?

A. They will get used to face the fast bowlers well. Remember what we should prove is that we are good not only in this part of the world, but in places like England, Australia, South Africa and the West Indies as well.

Q. What is your opinion of our spinners?

A. Muralitharan is world class ,but we must make a genuine effort to produce a few more Muralis. Take the situation today. Murali is the only top class spinner after D.S. de Silva.

Q. How do you propose to do that?

A. There is no infrastructure to produce spinners at the moment. We must pick a few promising young spinners and either send them to India or get down a well known Indian spinner to coach them. After all what we must be thinking is to develop what we are good at and that is spin bowling.

Q.The standard of school cricket in Sri Lanka is relatively high, however, we still fail to find suitable replacements to the national side from our schools?

A. Yes. That is because we do not have a good plan for talented school leavers. You must have a programme to select the cream of the school cricketers and send them to places like Australia, England or South Africa to improve further and gain the experience and not think of sending them to Bangladesh or any other place.

Q. Sri Lanka is expected to tour Australia later this year. How does the Australian public rate the world champions?

A. Sri Lanka is rated very high in Australia, specially when it comes to the one dayers. They love our style of play and enjoy watching them. However the Aussie public still remember the incident, during the last tour, when the Lankans refused to shake hands with the Australian team in the final. That has left a very bad impression. I think Ranjith Fernando, as the manager of the Sri Lanka cricket team, will have to do a lot of PR work to nullify that incident.

Sasha is best Offensive Player at basketball

St. Bridget's skipper Sasha Weerasinghe, who scored 248 points out of an aggregate of 413 points,enabled them to finish as runners-up in the Under 17 Cager Tournament concluded at the Holy Family Convent Courts at Kurunegala.

St.Bridget's lost to Holy Family Convent Kurunegala in the final by 58 points to 54.

Sasha Weerasinghe was picked as the Best Offensive Player of the tournament.

In the semi-finals St. Bridget's beat Girls High School Kandy 79-73.In reaching the finals St. Bridget's beat Pushpadana BMV Kandy 63-50, St.Joseph's Kegalle 68-52 and Holy Family Convent Dehiwela 50-23. The team is coached by Vincent Loganathan.

The St. Bridget's team: P. Radhakrishna, Chrishni Benedict, Dishni Benedict, Durga Pulendran, Kulzem Mohinadeen, Sharinka de Zoysa, Linzay Jansz, Shelina Madappuli, Ireshini Liyanage, Melissa Hindle, Nirodha Wijewickrema and Sasha Weerasinghe. Picture shows the St. Bridget's cager team the Principal Rev. Sr. Mary Francine and the teachers in-charge Dilini de Silva and Dinuka Fernando.

Drab, listless rugby at Longden Place

By S. Sivendran

Last Sunday I was watching the Carlsberg 'A' Division Clifford Cup Rugby encounter between Havelocks and Petersons in the company of Ken De Joedt, the former Trinity, Havelocks and Sri Lanka rugby stalwart, against whom I have played many exciting rugby matches. We were surprised at the rugby on show that evening at Longden Place. The two teams played rugby without any skills and were playing not for the love of rugby but with the purpose of winning. There were no attacking skills displayed by either team to outsmart the other and both teams appeared to thrive on each other's mistakes, which decided the outcome of the match. Gone are the days when the three quarters given the good ball to run by their hardworking forwards and indulging in various attacking ploys such as the dummy, the scissor, the reverse and the cross kicks from the wings which end in tries, bringing back memories of some of our great players like the late Nimal Maralande, Mohan Sahayam, Maurice de Silva, Maurice Anghie, Ken de Joedt, Didacus de Almeida, John Burrows, Nick Tait, Lionel Almeida, M.A. Majeed, Lorensz Pereira, and Glen Vanlangberg to name a few: In this game the handling of the ball was very poor where four out of five balls were dropped. Both teams did not have a game plan and played their rugby without purpose. The place kicks taken too were pathetic except for the Petersons place kicker Sham Pradeep a former Lumbini player who showed signs of a good kicker. For Havelocks several penalties went abegging for want of a good kicker which prompted Bernard Joseph the Havelocks secretary to request Ken De Joedt to take the field for the Havelock's as Ken was one of the finest place kickers during his hey days and who kicked Havelocks to win the Clifford Cup in 1961 under the captaincy of my good friend the late Dr Hubert Aloysious. Today the players at matches seem to be just going through the motions and not enjoying the game, which should not be. During the days goneby the players enjoyed playing the game using all their skills and ploys to outsmart their opponents which produced good rugby and the ultimate winner was the game of rugby. Petersons, who began their rugby a decade ago has been growing from strength to strength and on Sunday they deserved their victory against the Havelocks by 14 points. ( 1 Try and 3 penalties) to 7 points ( 1 goal). This is not the first time that Petersons have beaten Havelocks as earlier too they have beaten the senior club. The rugby on that day was very scrappy, and Petersons with the old war horses from Fiji, Apsi Nagata and Manaso Qoro to guide them got the better of a lethargic Havies. The first half saw Petersons enjoying a 6-nil lead through penalties by Sham Pradeep. Havies threw away all the scoring chances by kicking astray several penalties and dropping several passes which could have ended in tries. During the second half Petersons increased their lead to 14-nil with a penalty by Sham Pradeep who is also affectionately called "Kalu Malli" by his colleagues and an unconverted try fashioned by their maestro Apsi Nagata for winner Bandula Mallikarachchi to score. Havies however woke late in the game and made some daring attacks and were rewarded with a try by their unpredictable Samoan, Oni Toala who goaled making amends for his several misses earlier in the game. Kadugannawa MMV led by Nadeep Ranga Kumara has emerged as the only unbeaten school in the Under 15 All Island Horlicks Trophy Cricket Tournament.

"We have now entered the final round of the contest and are confident of doing well in the remaining matches", said cricket coach and master-in-charge Amarajeeva Dissanayake to The Sunday Times.

Out of 251 schools participating in the tournament, Kadugannawa MMV beat Galagedera MMV and Gampaha Wickremabahu MMV in the first round and followed it up by victories over Peradeniya MMV, Mawanella Baduriya MMV, Polgahawela St.Bernard's Vidyalaya and Kingswood College Kandy.

In the final round they have so far overcome challenges from St. Thomas' Matale and Madawela Madina MMV. In the match against Madawela Madina MMV, Chandana Kumara of Kadugannawa excelled himself by scoring a hard hit 101.

Summarized scores in the final round:

Kadugannawa MMV beat St.Thomas'Matale by 4 wkts at Matale.

St.Thomas' Matale - 158 for 9 in 50 overs (N.M.Ekanayake 51, Chinthaka Vimal Ranga 32; Shakila Siriwardena 2 for 30, Priyantha Perera 2 for 32).

Kadugannawa MMV - 170 for 6 in 40 overs (Lasantha Abeykoon 47, Mahesh Jayasinghe 31 n.o, Ranil Jayawardena 22 n.o; Dhanushka Bandara 4 for 33)

Kadugannawa MV beat Madawala Madina MMV by 182 runs. at Kegalle.

Kadugannawa MMV - 255 for 6 in 48 overs (Chandana Kumara 101, Sanjeeva Weerasinghe 40, Athula Rajapakse 29, Dhanushka Karunatilleke 28, Mahesh Jayasinghe 25 n.o; M.M.Azhar 2 for 50, S.M.Hafeel 2 for 57).

Madawawala Madina MMV - 73 in 32.4 overs (Mohammed Farzan 10; Shakila Siriwardena 4 for 20, Athula Rajapakse 3 for 19)

Fims approved sports medicine course for doctors in Sri Lanka

The Sri Lanka Sports Medicine Association has obtained approval to conduct a 'Team Physician Development Course', which is to be held in September, in Colombo. This course has been accredited by the International Federation of Sports Medicine, as a FIMS course.

The team Physician Course will take 3 days, and will include 16 hours of lectures with 3 workshops. The teaching faculty will consist of Consultants and Specialists of SLSMA, and there will also be visiting lecturers from abroad who will include a FIMS Education Commission lecturer from Oman, a FIMS lecturer from Hong Kong and a consultant from Australia.

The course will be supervised by a lecturer from the Education Commission of FIMS who will be in attendance, and ensure that the FIMS International Education standards are met.

Doctors who complete this course will be entitled to attend advanced FIMS courses abroad which are conducted by the American College of Sports Medicine and the European Chapter of FIMS. This is the first time that a National Association has been given accreditation to conduct a FIMS course in this region.

This milestone was achieved when the President of SLSMA Dr. C. Thurairajah submitted the course contents and syllabus of the Team Physician Course of SLSMA at the XXVIth Sports Medicine Congress held in Orlando, Florida, U.S.A. in June 1998. The accreditation was awarded by Dr. Lyle Micheli, Chairman of the Education Commission of FIMS and was granted by Prof . Eduardo de Rosa, President of FIMS and endorsed by Prof. Kai Ming Chan, President of the Asian Federation of Sports Medicine, on behalf of FIMS and AFSM. Dr. C.Thurairajah who was in the Education Commission of AFSM from 1992 to 1996, is presently in the Executive Committee of AFSM for the period 1996 to 2000. This achievement must be considered as a significant landmark for Sports Medicine in Sri Lanka.

This course will ensure that the doctors who accompany teams abroad, and provide medical care to our sportsmen and sportswomen will acquire the expertise and the qualification in Sports Medicine that is required for the job.

Doctors who wish to enrol on this course should contact Prof. Rohan Jayasekera, Chairman Educational Committee SLSMA, Faculty of Medicine, Colombo, Group Capt. Dr. Nimal H. Gunaratne, Secretary of SLSMA, Air Force Base, Katunayake or Major General Dr. C. Thurairajah, President SLSMA, Military Hospital, Colombo.

It is expected that doctors from the South Asia Region would also apply for this course. This course will realise a long felt need for Sri Lanka, that will help our sportsmen to achieve success in international competitions in sports.

This has been made possible only because of the commitment for professionalism in the medical care for our athletes, by the doctors in the Sri Lanka Sports Medicine Association

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