The Kandy District Cricket Association held its Annual General Meeting and election of office bearers on Monday at their office at Asgiriya with 18 club representatives present.
The AGM unanimously approved former president Thilina Tennakoon a Provincial Council Minster as the new president. He is a product of Dhamaraja College where he played cricket and later turned out for BRC and has been in cricket administration for some time.
Former St. Sylvester’s College, Kandy Youth and Kandy cricketer Roland Perera was elected as the senior vice president.
The vice presidents are Malcolm Perera who was one time director of coaching at Sri Lanka Cricket, Janaka Pathirane (immediate past president), Rajendren Divankaran and Nishantha Dissanayake an umpire.
The secretary is Niranjan Sumanasekara while the assistant secretary is C.N. Dissanayake. The treasurer is Dileepa Wijekoon and assistant treasurer Sagara Tennakoon.
The Tournament Committee chairman is Antonian Chandra Mawatha while the rest in the committee are Anton Perera, Anupama Guansekara, Lasantha Rodrigo and Thusitha de Silva while the Ground Secretary is Tuan Dole.
The Executive Committee was expected to be appointed at the first committee meeting to be held in a few days time.
The hope among cricket lovers is that the tournaments which were played will be back in action. And everyone hopes the clubs which came forward during the AGM will take up the sport once again or be shown the exit door.
In the early days when people like Dr. C.D.L.Fernando, late M.S. Uduwella and Harindra Dunuwille were at the helm, cricket flourished at Club level and there were several tournaments not forgetting the yeoman services rendered by the late Z.M. Jauffer and Aubrey Kuruppu when they were the secretaries.
At that time the committee was made out of people like Raja Abeynayake, Malcolm Perera, Shaw Wilson, M.H. Marikar, Roy de Silva, Deva Amunugama, Upananda Jayasundara, Lakshman Nugawella, Sunil Wickremanayake and A. S. Ekanayake.
At that time there were tournaments for schools as well. Kandy’s cricket history dates back to 1863.