U-19 Cricket: Trinity and St. Anthony’s to celebrate “Centenary Big Match” next year

The most popular big match in the hill capital also known as the "Battle of the Blues in Kandy" the Trinity vs Antonian will be reaching its 100th encounter next year. 

This much awaited 100th Cricket encounter will be played on March 10 and 11, 2017 at the Pallekelle International Cricket Stadium. 

A Joint Committee headed by the Principals of Trinity College and St. Anthony’s College have released the official event logo to be used in connection with all activities related to this Centenary Big Match. 

There will be a series of events organized to mark this historic occasion. 

The joint committee is being ably supported by the Old Antonians Cricket Wing, the Trinity College Cricket Foundation and the Old Trinitians Sports Club in planning and implementing the match and related events. 

St. Anthony’s and Trinity College are the two of the oldest Colleges in Kandy and the Trinity-Antonian encounter is also the 6th oldest Inter-school Big Match in Sri Lanka. 

Trinity College last won the big match in 2012 under the captaincy of current national player Niroshan Dickwella. 

For the Antonians the last win came way back in 1992 under the captaincy of Umesh De Alwis. 

The very first encounter of this series between these two schools was played in March 1914.

Two earlier games in 1907 and 1910 consisted of a mix of teachers and schoolboys.

Leading the teams in the first game played at the Bogambara grounds, were C.C. Senaratne of St. Anthony’s and C.E. de Silva of Trinity, with the Antonians winning. 

Trinity won the following year and a long, well contested series has followed, barring three years, in 1956, 1957 and 2001. 

The tally as it stands today after 99 encounters has Trinity College with 23 wins, St. Anthony’s College with 12 wins and 64 ending in draws. 

While the majority of wins registered by Trinity was in the pre-independence era, the Antonians have had the better of exchanges since independence. 

In the latter part of the last century a trophy was introduced in memory of John Halangoda, who was a product of Trinity College and subsequently cricket coach at St. Anthony’s College. 

Both schools have a proud history of producing some excellent cricketers who have gone on to shine in both local and international arenas. 

Amongst them are Jack Anderson, ACM Lafir, Mahes Goonatilleke, Bernard Perera, Marlon VonHagt, Ruwan Kalpage, Piyal Wijetunge, Muttiah Muralitharan and Sajith Fernando from St. Anthony’s and Ravi Ratnayeke, Nilantha Ratnayake, Kaushalya Weeraratne, Kumar Sangakkara, Sachith Pathirana, Niroshan Dickwella and Lahiru Kumara from Trinity. 

These two schools have produced the most number of international cricketers and also the most number of School Boy Cricketers of the year from the Central province.