by Hafiz Marikar in Kandy
Dharmaraja, one of the oldest cricket playing schools in the country will field a formidable team this season. They have played a couple of games and done well, under the guidance of one of their products Priyantha Weeragoda who gave off his best for the school and later played for Kandy CC. He later crossed over to the Navy SC and once again returned to Kandy.

The Rajans practice on their Lake View matting wicket but are forced to play most of their matches on turf. They are struggling to have the services of a turf wicket.

This season the side is led by a fourth year coloursman. Haresh Ratnayake, a hard hitting batsman. He is also a fine fielder and can field in any position. He represented the Sri Lanka Under 17 team at the Asia Cup. His deputy is Nirmal Wickremaratne, a fine all rounder.

The Rajans are lucky to have services of their last year’s skipper Anurudha Jayasundara, a fine all-rounder.

The other players are Mudith Wijekoon, a fine opening batsman, Mahesh Weerasuriya, an excellent stroke maker. Sarath Gunasinghe and Kelum Ariyadasa are also Kandy players.

The man to be watched this season is Chamara Kapugedera who has been among the runs, at junior level. Then there is Gyan Wijetilake, Kasun Weeraratne, Manjula Herath and Asanga Samarakoon, to name a few. But it is sad to say that they haven’t been feeding the media with news about the school. Earlier it was not so, as all the news in Colombo was given by their Colombo Branch OBA member D. M. Dharmatilake.

Dharmaraja has a long cricketing history as they have produced some top class players like Arthur Alwis, the first centurion of the school. T. B. Talwatte, T. B. Kelgamuwa who represented Sri Lanka and the late Sonny Yatawara, Bertie Nilagoda, the Jayasundara brothers Ananda, Daya and Upananda, were all-rounders. Then their were David Karunaratne, Harold Ranasinghe, a wicket keeper, D. D. Somapala, D. D. Hemapala, Gamini Gunatilake (Snr.), G. S. Ratnayake, Mahinda Pethiyagoda, Priyantha Weeragoda, Ravi Rajapakse, Geevan Gajaweera, Thilina Tennakoon, Indrajith Bandaranayake, A. Gannoruwa, D. D. P. Alwis, Shanthi Mendis, the Alwis brothers, D. de C and D. de D., T. B. Marasinghe, Chandra de Silva and A. S. Ekanayake, to name a few.