15Tuesday 23rd February, 2010

by Reemus Fernando

Royal, Dharmapala, St.Sebastian’s and DharmasokaColleges are on the top of thepoints table in their respectivegroups as they recorded outrightvictories in their last groupmatches of the on-going InterSchool Under-19 Division I tourna-ment conducted during the pastweek (Feb 15-22).

Dharmasoka College,Ambalangoda, ended their tourna-ment matches with a 10 wicket

victory over Kingswood College,Kandy, yesterday, to unseat TrinityCollege who were on the top of thepoints table in Group ‘B’.

While RoyalCollege, Colombo,beat Maliyadeva College,Kurunegala, St. Sebastian’sCollege, Moratuwa, routedPresident’s College, in the lastmatches. Dharmapala College,Pannipitiya, reclaimed the topposition, recording an innings winover Lumbini College, Colombo.

St. Sebastian’s took the topposition from St. Joseph’s in

Group ‘C’ and Royal, who wereplaced third position last week,overtook Ananda and Thurstan tosettle at the top in Group ‘A’.

There will be a keen contestnow for the fourth place in theirgroup. Mahinda (with one matchto go) is placed fourth with 72points, while Wesley, Maliyadevaand St. Anthony’s who are at fifth,sixth and seventh spots have achance of bettering their positionswith each having two or morematches remaining in the tourna-ment.

The Points Table of the Inter School Under-19 Division I two day tournamentas at 22 February 2010, after yesterday’s match between Kingswood

College, Kandy and Dharmasoka College, Ambalangoda. (This points table is projected by the ‘The Island’ and is not the official

points table of the Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association).

Group ‘A’

School MP WO LO WF LF ND RS WT Points Royal 8 2 0 4 1 1 2037 125 114.62Thurstan 8 2 0 4 1 1 2437 96 109.37Ananda 8 2 0 3 3 0 2233 115 101.08Mahinda 7 1 0 2 2 2 1426 97 72.51Wesley 6 1 3 1 0 0 1555 80 61.55Maliyadeva 6 1 2 1 2 0 1631 76 55.31St. Anthony’s 5 0 0 2 3 0 1784 66 50.34Zahira 8 0 3 0 4 1 2162 73 42.87Dharmaraja 6 0 1 0 1 3 1535 46 41.85

Group ‘B’

School MP WO LO WF LF ND RS WT Points Dharmasoka 8 4 0 3 1 0 2416 121 130.41Trinity 8 4 0 2 2 0 2346 139 126.21Richmond 7 2 1 3 0 1 2005 96 99.05Revata 7 3 3 0 1 0 1899 95 80.74Holy Cross 7 1 3 2 1 0 1886 97 73.11Maris Stella 6 1 0 2 2 1 1733 87 72.08Kingswood 8 0 2 3 3 0 1896 90 65.46St. Aloysius’ 7 1 2 1 3 0 1676 106 63.26St.Anne’s 8 0 5 0 3 0 1542 97 39.67

Group ‘C’

School MP WO LO WF LF ND RS WT Points St. Sebastian’s 8 4 0 2 2 0 2438 127 126.13St. Joseph’s 8 2 0 5 1 0 2309 111 118.84Moratu V 7 3 1 1 2 0 2087 98 93.37DSS 6 3 0 1 1 1 2039 90 91.89St. Benedict’s 8 0 0 5 1 2 2107 93 90.32De Mazenod 7 2 1 1 3 0 1810 79 71.85Kalutara MV 7 1 4 0 2 0 1415 88 48.15St. Sylvester’s 6 0 3 0 3 0 1389 63 29.64President’s 7 0 6 0 0 1 1381 46 28.31

Group ‘D’

Schools MP WO LO WF LF ND RS WT Points Dharmapala 8 4 1 2 1 0 2241 126 123.91Nalanda 7 4 0 1 1 1 1904 106 108.54Isipatana 8 2 2 3 0 1 1745 134 103.95St. Peter’s 8 0 1 3 2 2 2562 97 79.87PoW 7 1 0 3 2 1 1963 77 77.88Lumbini 8 2 3 0 3 0 2274 106 73.24Mahanama 8 1 4 1 1 1 2208 101 72.33S. Thomas’ 7 1 0 2 4 0 1763 98 70.13Joseph Vaz 7 0 4 1 2 0 1800 72 44.00

Under-19 Two Day Tournament standings

Royal, Dharmapala,St. Sebastian’s andDharmasoka on top

by Madura Nandana

Former Sri Lanka cricketcaptain, Sanath Jayasuriya iswithout a shadow of doubt,one of the hardest hitters ofthe ball. His numerous featsare still remembered by hisfans around the world. He isthe oldest all rounder in ODIcricket.

At the 1996 Wills WorldCup, he rose to fame for themanner in which he treatedthe bowlers. Consequently, hewas adjudged the Man of theTournament.

Short in stature but power-fully built, he has many a timedemonstrated his capabilityeven in Test cricket with a topscore of 340 against India onAugust 2, 1997, at thePremadasa Stadium, Colombo.

Now he has embarked onanother career by being a con-testant at the April 8Parliamentary Polls.

Jayasuriya has stated thathis entry into politics is anendeavour to empower thepoor and the needy.

Many top sportspersonssuch as Roger Federer - theWorld no. 1 men’s tennis play-er, Serena Williams – theworld women’s no. 1 tennisplayer and the world’s number1 golfer and highest paidsportsman Tiger Woods havelavishly donated a part oftheir earnings to alleviate thesufferings of the less privi-leged. They organised exhibi-tion matches to help the vic-tims of the devastating earth-quake which struck Haiti

recently.Their (above mentioned

three sports personalities)intention is to alleviate thesufferings of the poor and notseek power as politicians do.

What is politics? The word politics comes

from the Greek word ‘politi-ka’.

According to the CambridgeEnglish Dictionary, it isdefined as holding a positionof power in government.If Jayasuriya is elected…

It has been reported that hewould be able to balance hiscricket with politics.

But there arises a numberof questions in line with hisdecision. They are;

An elected member of par-liament must do his duty bythe people who voted him tothe legislature. It’s a tricky sit-uation. How well will he beable to perform both jobs tothe satisfaction of the partiesconcerned?

Can he serve the people asa politician and commit him-self fully for cricket, simulta-neously?

If Jayasuriya makesit to parliament...

Sampath Bank skipper Kaushal Silva receives theLeague champions trophy from the GeneralSecretary/MCA Roshan Iddamalgoda (R). Others inthe picture: L-R: Chairman/TournamentCommittee/MCA, Wasantha Fernando, MarketingDirector/Singer, Nasser Majeed (partly hidden), chiefguest, Chairman, Singer, Hemaka Amarasuriya andPresident/MCA, Neil Perera.

Knock-out runners-up captain, Malin Silva ofUnichela receives the trophy from thePresident/MCA, Neil Perera (R).

Muditha Maduwantha of Janashakthi receives theSinger Challenge trophy from the chief guest,Chairman, Singer (Sri Lanka) PLC and Patron/MCA,Hemaka Amarasuriya (R). Janashakthi won theknock-out championship.

Singer-MCA Premier League and K-0 awards presentation

The past cricketers of St.Joseph’s College and St.Peter’s College will clash inthe Joe-Pete Veterans’ (Over-40) 10th annual cricketencounter for the GaryMelder Trophy at DarleyRoad on Sunday (February28), commencing 9.30 am.

This year, the Old Joeswill be captained by RajiveBenedict while the OldPeterites will be skipperedby Ranmore Martinesz.

It will be the 10th occasionthat the alumni of the distin-guished aducation institutesmeet in the veterans’ bigmatch.

Old Joes lead the victorytally with six wins againstthe Old Pete’s three wins.

Teams:Old Joes - Rajive

Benedict (Capt), BrianRajadurai, Raymond Lord,Carlton Bernadus, Ravi DeSilva, Nimal Ranchigoda,Tony Goonewardena, PlacidoDe S. Wijeratne, TerrenceFernando, AsokaJayamanne, Trishane Nonis,Nihal Wijewickrema, RoshanAbeysinghe, Lalith Perera,Ashley De Silva and NandiAnthony.

Old Petes - RanmoreMartinesz (Capt), GihanSiribaddane, SusaanBandara, Anura Silva,Priyankara Abeyratne, PrianDe Silva, Shafeek Rahim,Walter Fernando, SudathKuruppu, DamianTissarachchi, SujeewaDahanayake, Rolith Perera,Peter Deckker, DilrukshanFonseka, Chaminda Pereraand Ranjith Fernando.

10th Joe-Pete veterans’clash on Sunday

WELLINGTON, New Zealand(AP) - The New Zealand men’s fieldhockey team has left for the World Cupin New Delhi, leaving behind strikerSimon Child who admitted concernover a terror threat to the tournament.

Child, 21, was the only player in the18-man squad to choose not to travel toIndia after a threat from an al-Qaida-linked guerrilla group of possibleattacks on the Cup, the Indian PremierLeague cricket tournament and theCommonwealth Games in New Delhiin October.

Hockey New Zealand confirmed itsteam would attend the World Cupwhich runs from Feb. 28 to March 13after accepting assurances that securi-ty around the tournament would betight. It then allowed players to decideindividually whether they were con-tent to travel.

NZ heads toWCup despiteterror threat

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates(AP) - Roger Federer says the worstis over for his “good friend” TigerWoods and hopes to see him backon the golf course, local reportssaid Monday.

“Tiger is a good friend of mine,”Federer told the English languagedaily The Gulf News. “What’s hap-pened to him has been hard towatch over the last three months,right down to when he made hisapology. I am sure he’s headed in abetter direction now. The worst haspassed.”

On Friday, a somber and com-posed Woods faced the world forthe first times since he crashed hiscar into a tree outside his familyhome three months ago, setting offshocking allegations of rampantextramarital relationships.

He admitted he cheated on hiswife, said he was “deeply sorry,”but did not say if and when he willplay golf again.

Federer was in the Gulf city-state to play in the DubaiChampionships. The top-rankedtennis star, a four-time winner inDubai, pulled out of the $2 milliontournament because of a lunginfection on Sunday.

Federer said he hoped to returnat Indian Wells from March 11, butmade no promises.

He did say he’s like to seeWoods back playing golf soon.

“It’s been hard to watch from faraway, but I would love to see himback on the golf course,” Federerwas quoted as saying. “It’s what hedoes best.”

Federer hopesWoods returnsto golf

Roger Federer

Sanath

The 17th Singer-MCA Premier League and theKnock-out tournaments 2010 were concluded withthe Knock-out final played at the P. Sara Oval, fol-

lowed by the awards presentation for both tourna-ments.

The league was won by Sampath Bank, while

the knock-out was won by Janashakthi, who beatUnichela by two wickets.