STCBw OBA  - Inaugural Softball Cricket Tournament

S. Thomas’ College Bandarawela OBA (STCBw OBA) is the youngest OBA among the Thomian family. After a few set backs at the early stages in the 70’s, it was revived once again in 1987. There onwards, it became stable with the commitment of some senior members. We have always had solid leaders who were able to steer the ship providing Opportunities to its members.

As such, a decision was made by the EXCO to conduct a Six a Side Softball Cricket Tournament for its members. It was limited only to the members of the STCBw OBA, since this was the first of its kind and it was important for the EXCO to see the outcome and decide whether it should be an annual event. This was an ideal opportunity for Old Boys to get together and display their skills and to have some fun with their families and friends. To our surprise, some have turned out to be better cricketers than those who played cricket for college. This event will also help to raise funds for the development of our Alma Mater. Now there is no hesitation in making this an Annual Event in the OBA Calendar. Since the Cricket Tournament is conducted for batches of various years, it will immensely help to develop the “Batch System” among the OBA Members, which is one of our main priorities at the moment.

A Young and energetic individual was required to head the committee and the Ex-Co decided to appoint  Gihan Kumara Gunasekara, who played cricket for the College in early 1990’s as the Chairman.

Gihan and his team comprising, Farook, Terrence, Rumi Reyal, Pradeep Suranjana, Dharshana, worked hard for the success of this event. Originally it was decided to work out the Matches on Sunday, February 27th at the BRC grounds, but due to unavoidable circumstances it was postponed and held on Sunday, MArch 27th 2011 at the same venue.

Thirteen teams entered the Tournament. The oldest Team being “1983 A/L Batch” captained by G. Parinathan, who is one of our devoted OBA members and the youngest team was “2009 A/L Batch” representing the newly formed “Junior Chamber of the OBA”.  The Tournament was jointly sponsored by   NETH FM (Media)  CARLTON SPORTS CLUB (TV), MOBITEL, PRIMA, HEMAS CONSUMER and several others  organizations including some of the Old boys living abroad.

The Officials were from the Sri Lanka Umpires and Scores Association, which is the official body for Softball Cricket in Sri Lanka.

A Team comprising of old boys from different batches named as “Wewetenna Blues” to reflect the village, where STC, Bandarawela is situated entered the finals along with “1992 A/L Batch”.

1992 AL Batch team was captained by Terrence Abraham and the other members were Qadir, Farook, Samantha, Sridharan, Micheal, Shantha and Dela. This team was among the runs throughout the tournament. Qadir scored 81 in the first match against 1983 AL Batch. Farook was the main wicket taker through out the tournament

Wewetenna Blues team was captained by Samitha Amarasinghe and the other members were Pradeep, Jaliya, Harsha, Lesley, Anudaran and Manodaran.  This was an equally matched side and Pradeep and Samitha were among the runs throughout the tournament.

1992 AL team emerged Winners of the tournament by defeating the Wewetenna Blues by four wickets in the finals.
Beautiful trophies were presented to winners and runners up along with several awards.
Best Batsman – Samitha Amarasinghe of Wewetenna Blues
Best Bowler   - F. M. Farook  of 1992 AL Batch
Man of the Series & Finals – Qadir Jaleel of 1992 AL Batch

Proceedings of the tournament to be utilized for a special project that will be discussed at the next EXCO meeting.

STCBw OBA EXCO wishes to thank the organizing Committee and all others who made this event a success.

ESTO PERPETUA