The first weekend in March will see the 'giants' in Sri Lanka Cricket gather at the SSC grounds. While the young cricket stars from Ananda and Nalanda take the field to match their skills in the 83rd Battle of the Maroons, the stalwarts from yesteryears will be there reminiscing the good olden days when they strolled down the ground to create many memorable moments for followers of the game in Sri Lanka. .

Ananda and Nalanda, together have not only produced the highest number of international cricket stars for Sri Lanka, they have also gifted us with excellent Cricket Administrators, elite Cricket umpires, respected match referees, leading sports media personnel and very importantly talented commentators with brilliant oratorical skills who were instrumental in popularising the game to this extent through the lengths and breadths of the country. .

It has now become one of the best in schools cricket encounters more importantly due to the manner in which this event has been and continues to be worked out with great friendship and camaraderie..

While there have been many significant achievements by players from both schools, the excellent performances by some of the great batsmen who have grabbed the opportunity in etching a name for themselves, remains in the memory of many who have been fortunate in being a part of this encounter over the years..

The first centurion in an Ananda Nalanda Big Match was Nalanda's P M Jayathilake whose score of 111 runs in the 1928 Big match remained the batting record for the highest individual score for more than 4 decades. P M Jayathilake in later years went on to become a respected educationalist and also served as the Principal of Thurstan College..

44 years later, in 1972 Bandula Warnapura played a brilliant chance-less knock of 118 not out in what was his last innings in a Big Match with Ananda.

Bandula Warnapura continued with his brilliant batting prowess and went onto play for Sri Lanka and holds the unique honour of becoming our first test captain. He was a stylish right handed batsman who opened the batting for Nalanda before he went on to gain national recognition and play for the country in the inaugural Cricket World Cup in 1975 as well. Bandula is currently the Development Manager of the Asian Cricket Council. .

12 years after that , in the 55th Big Match in 1984 Roshan Mahanama scored a brilliant knock of 145 not out to claim the series batting record of Ananda and Nalanda. Roshan too batted gained national honours and played for Sri Lanka in from 1986 to 1999 and was also a member of the World Cup winning Sri Lankan team in 1996. Roshan serves in the elite panel of ICC match referees at present..

In the 68th Battle of the Maroons we saw the batting record change hands again within the Nalanda camp when Shantha Kalavitigoda eclipsed Roshan Mahanama’s record with a superb knock of 149 not out, which still remains the highest individual batting record in the series. Kalavitigoda is another cricketer who has played Test cricket for Sri Lanka as an opening batsman, with his sedate batting style..

Though there have been 10 centurions in the series since then , the closest that one has come to matching the highest score is when Thilina Kandamby another national player in later years, got out for 144 runs in the 70th Big Match in 1999, just five runs short of the record score.

Another significant feature of the Maroons Battle is that players from Ananda and Nalanda have captained Sri Lanka at National level, on more than half the occasions, in all three versions of the game - Test Cricket, One Day International Cricket and T20 Cricket. Bandula Warnapura, Arjuna Ranathunga, Roshan Mahanama, Marvan Atapattu and the current skipper Mahela Jayawardena being those doing the honours for the country. .

These records and the achievements apart the contribution that these two schools have made to Sri Lanka cricket by producing numerous amount of disciplined and well mannered sportsmen has been really worthy of emulation..

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