Tamil Union’s march to the Premier League Championship for 2015/16

Tamil Union Cricket and Athletic Club’s First Eleven cricketers bathed themselves in glory by winning Sri Lanka Cricket’s Premier League Trophy in the extended version of the game. TU also were runners-up to the Army SC in the T20 tournament this year.

This win was achieved after the Club won the then equivalent – the inaugural P.Saravanamuttu Trophy – in 1950/51, under Sathi Coomaraswamy. So, a 65-year wait was finally ended.

TU has had two close calls since – one in 1982/83 under S.Skandakumar, when they were pipped to the post on a matter of 0.15 points by Bloomfield C & AC, and then again in 1998/99, when, under Upul Chandana, they could not claim the last Sebastianites CC wicket in the whole of the last session, and ended up as Runners-Up.

There have been numerous Premier League Limited Overs championship wins in the interim – the last one being under Sajit Fernando in 2009/10. There have been unprecedented Under-23 tournament wins, including four in the last five years – including a hat-trick – but this is the grand-daddy of them all!

This year, the team was led by TU’s own home-grown talent, Sri Lankan fast bowler Suranga Lakmal.

Suranga has extremely humble beginnings, hailing from Debarawewa, near Hambantota. Having been discovered playing for the local school, he was picked up by Mahinda College, Galle, where he performed so outstandingly, that he was picked to attend Sri Lanka Cricket’s Fast Bowling camp. Champaka Ramanayake, SLC’s fast bowling coach, felt that Suranga’s best interests would be served under the nurturing gaze of the Tamil Union.

Suranga’s home for the first few seasons was in TU’s Cricketers’ Hostel, which the Club maintains expressly for the purpose of providing a home for the youngsters need to be accommodated, fed and watered in “The Big Smoke” that is Colombo. At any given time, there are ten cricketers staying with TU. Several of them have gone on to sport National colours at various levels, and the Club is proud of its contribution to Sri Lanka’s cricket.

There are many other National cricketers in the Club team, although many of them could not play the entire season due to National commitments. Among them are the legendary T.M. Dilshan and Rangana Herath, leg-spinning all-rounder Jeewan Mendis, Test opener Tharanga Paranavitharna, young guns Dhananjaya De Silva, Kithruwan Vithanage and Ramith Rambukwella, along with paceman Shaminda Eranga.

Several others, like fast bowler Nisala Tharaka and batsman Pabasara Waduge have represented Sri Lanka at the “A” team level.  Fast bowling all-rounder Charith Jayampathi and leg-spinning all-rounder Pulina Tharanga (a tsunami survivor, also completely home-grown!) are burgeoning National prospects.

Also in the ranks are former school captains Dinuk Wickremanayake (Trinity), Devind Pathmanathan (Royal), Madhushan Ravichandrakumar (S.Thomas’), Sithara Gimhan (Richmond), Imal Liyanage (Royal) and Chamika Karunarathne (Royal) and wicket-keeper batsman Manoj Sarathchandra (St Anthony’s, Kandy).

Others who played this season were fast bowler Pramod Liyanagamage, batsman Isuru Buddhika and left-arm tear-away Isuru Prashan.

The team was coached by Kapila Weerasinghe, with Manager Mahesh Bopage providing outstanding logistical support.

This season, TU played six games in the first round, with two outright wins, two first innings wins, one draw and one loss. In the Super 8 stage of the tournament, TU played four games, with outright wins against the NCC, SSC, Colts and Galle – probably the strongest teams in the competition.

In terms of individual performances, in batting Tharanga Paranavithana led the way with an aggregate of 953 runs at an average of 79.41. Dhananjaya De Silva was second with 858 runs at 54.25, and Jeewan Mendis was third with 574 runs at 47.83.

In bowling, Dhananjaya was the highest wicket-taker with 34 wickets, with Jeewan running a close second on 32 wickets.

It is expected that Tharanga and Dhananjaya will be awarded Best Batsman and Best All-rounder respectively at the Sri Lanka Cricket Awards Presentation to be held later in the year, as they have performed the best in the League.

The Club is very proud of this achievement and wishes to thank its President, Secretary, Committee Members, and, in particular those involved in the Cricket Administration over the past few years, without whom this long-cherished goal could not have been achieved.

 by Suresh Murugaser