\”Cricket is not about losing or winning, it is about enjoying.”
Cricket is considered to be the most popular sport in Sri Lanka. The cricket team of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura has beaten their competitors and is ahead of all other university teams in the country to date. The cricket team of our university has won several championships and the most notable being the ones won recently such as the 2016-SLUG-Championship,
2017-Inter-university games -Championship,
2019-SLUG-Championship and the
2019- Division Three Western Province-Runner up.
Our cricketers have vividly exhibited their outstanding talents in these tournaments. Seven cricketers of the team have represented first class sports\’ club tournaments, Sara Trophy tournaments and Second Division tournaments where they have performed very well.
Madhawa Nimesh has served as captain for the U15 Srilankan cricket team while Wenuka Galahitiyawa has represented U19 spin squad. Most of the players in our team have been the captains and the vice captains in the first division of their schools. The former vice-chancellor of our university ;Senior Prof.Sampath Amarathunga had also served as captain for the J\’pura cricket team.
In the university tournament 2019, Isitha Wijesundara became the highest wicket taker while Sajith De Silva was the highest run scorer.And again in 2019, the cricket team of Japura took part in the third division sports club tournament representing the university where they won the runner up in the western province .There of course three players were lucky enough to be selected for a Malaysian tournament under the leadership of Supun Waragoda ,while Sajith De Silva and Gihan Dhanushka were awarded as the best batsman and the best bowler respectively.
In the Mercantile cricket tournament 2019,Kasun Aberathne of team Japura became the best batsman. As the counsellor of the team, Mr.Nuwan Niroshana (team captain in 2017) has contributed enormously in order to bring the team to the present standard.Mr.Vimukthi Deshapriya works as the coach of the team and the team has won 3 championships since he joined with the university in 2015.He has also put a great effort to mould the team towards success.
As for the moment, the cricketers from our university, namely Tharindu Karunarathne, Madhawa Nimesh, Isitha Wijesundara, Kasun Aberathne, and Sanka Poorna are playing in the first class tournaments.Let us hope and wish for such talent and fineness in the future as well from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura.
Written by: Aditya Wickrama Arachchi
Graphic designed by : Jithmi Rajapaksha