Trinity College’s remarkable achievement under head coach Naveen Ekanayake

Trinity College U-19 cricket outfit

By Shamseer Jaleel

The Trinity cricket outfit, under the watchful eyes of their head coach, Naveen Ekanayake, ended a great season in 2022/23. They became champions in the one-day encounter and joint champions in the two-day encounter against Joes. Rahal Amarasinghe led the outfit, which consisted of two national youth players, Manula Kularatne and Theeraka Runathunge.
Naveen, who learned his basics at Trinity as a right-handed batsman and a useful wicketkeeper, played from U-13 to U-19 level, ending as the Best Fielder in each group, which is a remarkable achievement for any player. In 2014 and 2015, he was the Best Wicketkeeper of All Island’s best team, Trinity, in both years.

After leaving school, he played for Colombo Cricket Club (CCC) and Kandy CC in the U-23 tournaments and last played for Old Trinitians Sports Club in divisions 2 and 3.
Naveen’s coaching career started at Trinity when he joined as the 2nd XI (A team) head coach and later became the First XI assistant coach. After completing his level 2 in coaching, he was given the opportunity to take over in 2022 from another old boy, Kavinda Jayasuriya, who did a remarkable job bringing Trinity in to put the foundation in place.
Under Naveen’s coaching stint so far, Trinity was able to end as U-17 Joint Champions (2022), U-19 Division 1 Champions in Tier A-2023, and U-19 Division 1 Joint Champions (two-day) tournament in 2022/23, the latter being the Big Match first innings win over the Antonians to regain the trophy after a five-year wait, plus the famous Trinity win over Royal at Reid Avenue in their 130-year history. The same season, they beat Royal at Asgiriya too. Trinity College became double champions after 11 years, making a hat-trick of championships in his career, which is one of the best in the recent past among the school coaching staff around the country.

Naveen got ample support from assistant coach Lakshitha Alahakoon, 2nd XI coach Dinusha Jayasanka, trainer Bandula Pushpakumara, physiotherapist Lasantha Herath, MIC Brayan Senarathne, and POG Uthiya Wijesinghe, along with sports-loving principal Father Araliya Jaysundera.

Some of the top performers this season were skipper Rahal Amarasinghe, Vibhavith Ehalapola, Dinusha Pieris, Manula Kularathne, Theeraka Ranatunga, Dinuka Thennkoon, Tharana Wimaladharma, Janith Warnakula, Jayavi Liyanagama, Lakvi Abeysinghe, Supun Waduge, and Kusal Wijetunga.