SHADOW WARRIORS OF DEVAPATHIRAJA NUDGE THE MIGHTY

MINUS TECHNICAL EXPERTISE AND FANFARE, A NEW BREED OF CRICKETERS FROM A VILLAGE SCHOOL IS TURNING HEADS

- By CALLISTUS DAVY

Away from the squabbles for position, political bickering, jockeying for prominence and egoism and the unprecedented forms of corruption, cricketers from a village school have exposed the self-styled pundits and created a record that perhaps no privileged school has ever been able to do.

Being in school cricket for just around 20 years, Devapathiraja College's cricketers entered three top shelf finals, Under-13, 15 and 17, winning the crown in the latter age group with mere mental determination and physical drive to reinforce their passion for cricket on the field.

"The players had just one goal in mind and that was to show the elite schools that what they can do we can do better by asking for nothing", said Devapathiraja’s unsung coach Ranjan Lasantha de Silva.

An old boy of the school, Ranjith was lured into cricket by watching the established schools in the south field teams with nothing to deter him. He gave it a try by walking up to the Principal of Devapathiraja, Nissanka Gunasekera, with a fervent plea. Ranjan's wish was immediately granted, virtually given to him on a platter and he wasted no time setting the course to ensure cricket took root, not with money and patronage of the high and mighty, but with the stuff that dreams are made of.