Thurstan Cricket

Commencement & the person responsible

Thurstan commenced playing cricket in 1953 when the first eleven comprising many under 16ners were pitted against the 2nd IX of leading Colombo Schools. Thurstan was fortunate that it’s first Principal Mr. Earle Schokman was an ardent cricket fan and gave what ever assistance to uplift the game at Thurstan. His passion for the game even extended to giving the latest cricket updates on test matches played in Australia over the public address system. By early sixties Thurstan were playing first eleven cricket against all leading Colombo schools. In the early sixties when the Nationalized Schools Cricket Association [ NSCA] toured Australia, 4 Thurstanites went on three of these tours.

1961 Harris Perera & Mahanama Wijayaratna
1963 Harris Perera [ Capt ], T N Fernando
1965 Lalith Pieris [ Capt ]

Traditional fixtures

Thurstan play Isipathana in their Annual Big Match. The match against Isipathana commenced in 1964 and was elevated to a big match status in 1968 and is now played for the Blackham Wijewardana Trophy. It has been played continuously annually except in 1971 when the insurgency broke out and the match had to be cancelled. Thurstan lead the series 5 matches to 4 with the rest being drawn. Out of this 5 wins, 3 came in consecutive years 1990-92 when Thurstan had dream run In the Limited over series which commenced in 1981 where it is played for the W A de Silva Memorial Trophy, Isipathana lead Thurstan 13 matches to 11 and Thurstan had been successful in winning the last 7 matches in a trot The Mini big match is played for the P M Jayatillake Trophy while the under 15 match is played for the D D Jayasinghe Trophy Thurstan play 1st XI cricket with all leading schools in Colombo & Outstation except Ananda. They are Royal, St Thomas’s Mt Lavinia, St Peter’s, St Joseph’s, Nalanda, Wesley, Zahira, D S Senanayake, Lumbini, Maris Stella, St Anthony’s Kandy, Maliayadeva, St Anne’s Kurunagala & Mahinda Galle Thurstan Won the Lemonade trophy six-a-side tournament organized by Wesley College in 1995.

Number of teams

Thurstan has the 1st IX, 2nd IX, Under 16, Under 14 [ 2 teams ], Under 12 [ 3 teams] The college ground which has a matting wicket where matches of Under 13 to 2nd XI are played. It has 3 concrete practice wickets. 1st XI matches are played at outside venues Thurstan is now developing their grounds at Bauddhaloka Mawatha to play 1st XI cricket on Turf wickets in 2005