Wednesday 3rd March, 201015

Nushad Perera, Group Chief Marketing Officer of Dialog Telekom (C) holds a memento flanked by the representativesof some of the 34 schools which have benefited by the Dialog sponsorship at a press conference held on Monday.

(Pic by Dharmasena Welipitiya)

by Reemus Fernando

Dialog will sponsor 17 schoolBig Matches, including two-day,limited overs and T20, in what thetelecommunication companytermed as the biggest ever spon-sorship of Big Matches in SriLanka.

Flanked by the representa-tives of some of the 34 schoolsbenefited by the sponsorship,Nushad Perera, Group ChiefMarketing Officer of DialogTelekom announced this at apress conference held on Monday.

Thirty four schools playing in17 Big Matches in 14 townsaround the island, including theNorth and East will receiveDialog support.

The 17 big matches includeThurstan-Isipatana (two day andlimited overs), St. Joseph’s–St.Peter’s (limited overs), Royal-Thomian T20 matches inColombo, Kingswood-Dharmaraja(Two-day) and Trinity St.Anthony’s (limited overs) match-es in Kandy, Rahula-St. Aloysius’(Two-day) match in Matara,Richmond-Mahinda (Two day)match in Galle, Dharmasoka-Devananda (Two-day) match atAmbalangoda, KalutaraVidyalaya-Tissa Central (Two-day) match at Kalutara, St.Sebastian’s–Prince of Wales(Limited overs) match atMoratuwa, Jaffna Central-St.John’s College (Three day) matchin Jaffna, Hindu College-

Vishananda Vidyalaya (Two-day)match in Trincomalee, St. Mary’s-Zahira match and SeevaliCentral-Gankanda Central matchat Ratnapura, S.Thomas’-ScienceCollege match at Matale, St.Mary’s-Kegalu Vidyalaya matchin Kegalle and the match betweenthe two Bandaranaike Colleges(Gampaha and Veyangoda).

Speaking at the occasion,Nushad Perera said that noneof the Big Matches is second toanother whether they are fromColombo or the outstations andDialog sponsors the matches tohelp cricket at the grass rootlevel.

The generous gesture ofDialog was lauded by the repre-sentatives of the schools, spe-cially by the principals of out-station schools who are stillstruggling to establish them-selves as formidable forces inschool cricket.

Dialog sponsors 17 big matches

The 76th ‘Battle of the Saints’ Big Match between St. Joseph’s College and St. Peter’s College will be playedat P. Sara Stadium commencing Friday. Ceylon Cold Stores are the sponsors of the two day encounter playedfor the Rev. Fr. Maurice Legoc Trophy. Their sponsorship was announced at a media briefing held last week.Neil Samarasinghe, Vice President, John Keells (third left) is pictured here with Rev. Fr. Sylvester Ranasinghe(Rector, St. Joseph’s) and Rev. Fr. Travis Gabriel (Rector, St. Peter’s) at the announcement of the sponsorship.Also in the picture are (from left); Prasann Liyanage, Chairman, Cricket Advisory, St. Joseph’s, RukmalEhalamalpe, Production Manager, CCL and Maithri Vithanage, Brand Activation Manager, CCL.

(Pic by Sajith Jayasekara)

Ceylon Cold Stores sponsors ‘Battle of the Saints’

Lyceum International School,Nugegoda, is organising the Inter-International Schools AthleticChampionship (ISAC), 2010, which is themost important Co-curricular event inthe school calendar of all internationalschools. It will be held at theSugathasada Stadium, Colombo fromMarch 5 to 7, commencing 8.30 am, eachday.

The championship will be conductedunder international rules and regula-tions including electronic timing andmeasurements and with the presence ofqualified AA Technical Officers.

Around 3,500 athletes from eight agecategories, including boys and girls from21 international schools, are due to com-pete, while over 350 qualified technicalofficers would conduct the competitions,in accordance with the rules of theAmateur Athletic Association of SriLanka and the Association ofInternational Schools Regulations.

The events at the meet will be held for following age groups;

Under-7 Boys and Girls, Under-9 Boysand Girls, Under-11 Boys and Girls,Under-13 Boys and Girls, Under-15 Boysand Girls, Under-17 Boys and Girls,Under-19 Boys and Girls and Under-20Boys and Girls.

Competing schools:Alethea International School, Asian

International School, Belvoir CollegeInternational, British School, Colombo,Burhani Serendib School, ColomboInternational School, Kandy, ColomboInternational School, Colombo, Collegeof World Education, Elizabeth MoirInternational School, Gateway College,Colombo, Gateway College, Kandy, IkraInternational School, LeedsInternational School, Panadura,Leighton Park International School,Lyceum International School, Nugegoda,Lyceum International, Wattala, OKI

International School, Royal Institute, St.Nicholas’ International School, StaffordInternational School and WycherleyInternational School.

Mohan Lal Grero, Chairman of theOrganizing Committee of ISAC 2010 andManaging Director of LyceumInternational Schools, speaking on thisathletic meet states, “LyceumInternational School, Nugegoda andGateway College took the leadership inorganizing this event for the past nineyears. The success of the meets havebeen due to the co-operation of all themember schools of the Association ofInternational Schools and this athleticmeet is to enhance the fertility andprogress in the field of sports.”

Susanthika Jayasinghe, Olympicmedal winner and Major General PalithaFernando, President of the AmateurAthletic Association of Sri Lanka will bethe chief guests at the opening and clos-ing ceremonies, respectively.

10th Inter International Schools Athletic Championship from March 5-7

Vidyarathana Sports Club, Horana,came up with a magnificent perform-ance as they won the OverallChampionship with 30 points at the

Junior National Boxing Championship,which was worked off at SariputhraCollege, Ahangama, on Sunday.

Royal College were placed second

with 14 points while Sri Lanka Navywere third with 12 points.

AC Chandrasiri of Vidyarathana SCwho fought in the Fly Weight Under-

51Kgs category was adjudged the BestBoxer in the men’s category while W. A.C. I. Perera of the Sri Lanka Army wonthe award for the Best Female Boxer.

Vidyarathana Sports Club, who won the Overall Championship at the Junior National Boxing Championship, with Palitha Peiris, who was the chief guest at the awards ceremony. (Pic by Kamal Wanniarchchi)

Vidyarathana Overall Junior boxing champs“I did not contest the Presidency

this year having been unanimouslyelected President for the last nineyears and its pleasing to note that thework I did to bring a suspendedMercantile Athletic Federation towhat it is today has been appreciat-ed,” said Ashley de Abrew, who wasunanimously appointed as its firstHonorary Life Member at the AGMheld on February 1, 2010.

A brief of these nine years shouldbe mentioned. “We were initiallyknown as the Mercantile AthleticAssociation. However, due to variousfactors amongst which were noaccounts, no AGMs and no meets, theassociation was suspended.Subsequently, it was revived with aname change as the MercantileAthletic Federation. Here again, dueto various problems similar to whattook place earlier, it was to be sus-pended for the second time, when Iwas elected President in the year 2000I was determined to forge aheaddespite all these obstacles. I was alsoa Vice President of the AAA at thattime and appealed to the thenPresident of the AAA, SunilGunawardhana, to withhold the sus-pension and give are six months totransform the MAF into a powerfulbody to be reckoned with. I am thank-ful to him for acceding to my requestinspite of opposition from other Ex-Co Members.

Audited Accounts revealed that wewere saddled without funds and along list of debtors. The next step wasto summon a Annual General meet-ing and this opportunity was seized tochase out the destructive spiders andbreak the cobwebs. At this juncture, Imust mention the names of three gen-tlemen who during my nine years atthe Mercantile Athletic Federation,stood by me right along. They areRanjith Weerasena, Vice President,Sachithanandan, Secretary, GaminiWeerasingha, Athletic Secretary.

The next step was to organise ameet and obtain a sponsor for thispurpose. I personally visited some ofthe leading mercantile firms and metthe people who matter regardingsponsorship who in most instanceswere known to me.

“The bottom line of almost All dis-cussions were “We will see next year”

“I understood this attitude, know-ing the past reputation of theMercantile Athletic Association. Wewere now running short of time andthe situation was desperate.Ultimately, on a friendly level I per-suaded four small timers to help usout, which they willingly did, withthe balance coming out of our pock-ets. Having the meet at theSugathadasa Stadium was out of thequestion due to financial constraints,resulting in the meet being held at theRace course. The meet was a tremen-dous success! So much so that, someevents were conducted in semi dark-ness, due to the unpresidented num-ber of entries. I am most thankful tothe print media for all the publicityand highlighting of all our difficul-ties. From 2001, it was no problem.Sponsors were available, press confer-ences were held prior to the meets.The reputation we had gained wasreally reflected by the fact that on twooccasions the meet was sponsored bya mercantile firm who had no partici-pants. In 2006 and 2008, when I washeavily involved in internationalevents which were held in Sri Lanka,the meets wee successfully held with-out sponsors. The ExecutiveCommittee of the Mercantile AthleticFederation was carefully selectedsince 2001 and this also contributed toour success. I am certain that thenewly elected president and commit-tee will continue the good work andavoid pitfalls which would result inour reaching the pre-2000 era.”

MAF unanimouslyelects first Hon. Life Member

P. H. D. Waidyatilaka, VicePresident, Athletic Association ofSri Lanka and President, Sri LankaMasters’ Athletics was unanimouslyelected President of the MercantileAthletic Federation at the AnnualGeneral Meeting held on February15, at the Otters Aquatic Club,Colombo.Office-bearers:President: P. H. D. Waidyatilaka (KelaniPaper).Vice Presidents: Chairmanie de Alwis (JanetGroup), T. J. Chandradasa (Body Bar), GihanKandulawa (MAS Intimates), DhammikaMenike (HNB), W. A. W. D. Fernando (AASL),Sydney Ratnayake (Dockyard).General Secretary: K. Satchithananda(American Engineering).Asst. Secretary: Roshan Samaraisinghe(TFC).Hony. Treasurer: Basil Silva (HSBC).Meet Secretary: Hansa Withanawasam(SriLankan Airlines).

Waidyatilaka electedPresident, MercantileAthletic Federation

At the annual 131st ‘Battle of the Blues’ Royal-Thomiancricket encounter, which will be played at the SSC groundson 11, 12 and 13 March, the OTSC Family Tent will be locat-ed at the SLC Grand Stand upper floor. Ace entertainerRonnie Lietch will be the guest artist once again and he willentertain the members and the guests. Music will be provid-ed by ‘Wild Flowers’ led by Batison. Limited tickets areavailable at the club house for members and their guests.

Ronnie to ‘rock’ at the OTSCTent at Roy-Tho