The champion Sri Sumangala College, Hikkaduwa team pictured with retired Sri Lanka cricketer Sidat Wettimuny, Founder and Chief Trustee of the FOG Kushil Gunasekera, head coach Lakmal Dissanayake, school principal Dinesh Rahubadda and former Nalanda College captain Nandadeva Perera
By Callistus Davy
Kushil Gunasekera, former First Class cricketer and Chief Trustee and Founder of the humanitarian organisation named the Foundation of Goodness (FOG), has conveyed his deep and heartfelt gratitude to the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in the United Kingdom following a monumental feat by Sri Sumangala College that created supposedly a world record unprecedented in the annals of Sri Lanka’s sporting history.
Sri Sumangala College in Hikkaduwa in the southern district of Galle won the all-island senior League cricket championship with a record 16 wins on the trot in the Division Three segment and was unstoppable, as they also pocketed the Knockout title under the care of the FOG that built the school, a venue and ground with turf pitches through funds provided by the MCC.
“I extend our deepest gratitude to the Marylebone Cricket Club for your invaluable support in establishing the Sri Sumangala MCC Lord’s Cricket Ground in 2007, post tsunami, a visionary landmark that has made a tremendous impact leading to an unmatched success story because you cared to make it happen,” Gunasekera, who has been bestowed with honourary membership at the MCC, has conveyed to the Club’s President Lord King of Lothbury.
With coach Lakmal Dissanayake
Cricket was beyond the reach of a groundless Sri Sumangala College built on hard gravel, until Gunasekera came along like a guardian angel who convinced the MCC after a visit to the school.
In posting their whirlwind 16 League wins on the trot Sri Sumangala, under the guidance of head coach Lakmal Dissanayake, demolished teams like Rahula Colle in Matara, Maris Stella College in Thimbirigaskatuwa in Negombo, Royal College in Panadura, Henagama Central and Christ King College in Ja-Ela, schools that were rated higher in the League.
The extraordinary feat also stunned a retired cricket heavyweight maestro in Sidath Wettimuny who scored Sri Lanka’s first Test century (190) at Lord’s in England in 1984.
“I am shocked and amazed that you guys won 16 matches in a row “, Wettimuny told the champion team at a felicitation ceremony last month.
In their quest to reach sporting immortality, Sri Sumangala College had in their ranks an opening batsman Tharun Damsith de Silva who grabbed a 100 wickets that raised more curiosity about the school which is well patronised through a lavish sponsorship by the FOG.
While noting the roles played by past Presidents, CEOs and Secretaries of the MCC since 2005, Gunasekera contends that the patronage and generosity of the MCC has not only created role models for Sri Lanka but brought in new hope for the future of rural cricketers.
“Your legacy here is not only etched in our cricket ground, but in the hearts and futures of every young player who dares to dream big and is a testament to the fact that MCC and Lord’s are not only the home of cricket but the very gentlemanly spirit of the game which can inspire and uplift us all, the way it is showcased here,” Gunasekera further emphasised in his letter.
The MCC is known as the rule-making custodian of world cricket.
