By: M. Shamil Amit

Colombo, Jan. 22 (Daily Mirror) - Two leading Buddhist schools in Sri Lanka, Ananda and Nalanda, have finalised plans to conduct their annual Battle of the Maroons big match, which was launched amidst distinguished guests at the SSC auditorium.

The match, which is the 94th in the series, is scheduled to be played on March 2–3 at the SSC ground.

The joint committee, spearheaded by two distinguished old boys of the two schools, who are the co-chairmen, former SLC chairman Upali Dharmadasa (Ananda) and former Air Force Commander Gagan Bulathsinghala, is leaving no stone unturned to make this a successful event.

The two schools in the past have had the honour of producing star-studded players—to be precise, the most number of local and international players. Prominent names include the likes of Bandula Warnapura, the first Test captain, Arjuna Ranatunga, the 1996 World Cup winning captain, Roshan Mahanama, Asanka Gurusinghe, Marvan Atapattu, Kumar Dharmasena, Mahela Jayawardena, Avishka Gunawardena, Sidath Wettimuny, Lalith Kaluperuma, Dinesh Chandimal, Brendon Kuruppu, Anura Ranasinghe, Chamara Dunusinghe, Thilan Samaraweera, Nishantha Ranatunga, Charith Senanayake, and Sanjeewa Ranatunga, to name a few. Most of these players were in attendance with the aim of giving support to their alma mater.

The inaugural Test match saw five players from the two schools, namely Sidath Wettimuny, Arjuna Ranatunga, Brendon Kuruppu of Ananda, and Bandula Warnapura, and Lalith Kaluperuma from Nalanda, being members of the team.

Ananda has a history of 137 years of existence, having begun in 1886, while Nalanda, which was established in 1925, will be celebrating 100 years this year, and for sure, they will no doubt strive to make this a memorable match for them.

The significant event of this year’s encounter was the relaunch of the official Battle of the Maroons logo after a lapse of 15 years, which took place at the press briefing.

The encounter between the two schools was a friendly affair that was played in 1924, and the inaugural match was officially played in 1926.

From the 93 matches that have been played so far, Ananda leads the tally with 12 wins, while Nalanda has been successful on seven occasions: Iruth Gimshan will lead Ananda, while Sajitha Vithanage will spearhead Nalanda.