St Anthony’s College, Kandy and St Peter’s College first met in October 1932 for a ‘Whole Day ‘game in Colombo which St. Peter’s College won on the first innings. This is believed to have been a third-term fixture of the 1933 season. After a lapse of three years, a further ‘Whole Day’ game was played in 1936 which also ended in a first-innings win for the Colombo boys. The two-day encounters started in earnest in 1937 and have continued annually up to now, with a few exceptions.

From the time the first game was played in 1899 between St Anthony’s College, Kandy and St Joseph’s College, this encounter has continued to maintain its rich traditions of fair play and great sportsmanship. Across 120 years of history and after several thrilling games, St Joseph’s have come out on top more frequently than the Kandy school. As at 2026, after 111 games, the record stands at 44 wins for SJC, 9 wins for SACK with 58 draws.

St Anthony’s College, Kandy were declared joint champions of the Under-13 Division I School Cricket Tournament after the final against Thurstan College ended in a draw. Skipper Sandil Seneviratne led from the front with a superb 94, adding a valuable 50-run partnership with Hiruka Abeyratne (30*) to guide the Antonians to a competitive total. The pair then turned in equally committed bowling efforts, supported by some desperate ground fielding, to keep Thurstan in check. Sandil returned figures of 2/33 from eight overs, while Hiruka claimed 2/27 from ten overs.

When 15-year-old opening bat Sisal Hemaka Attanayaka scored a magnificent unbeaten 150 against Gurukula College, Kelaniya at Katugastota, he etched his name into Antonian cricket history.

Sisal, who turns 16 in May, is arguably the youngest Antonian ever to compile an innings of 150 or more, a remarkable feat that underlines the significance of his knock and signals the arrival of a special talent. We look forward to watching him develop his skills throughout his school career, not just this year but over the next three years for which he remains eligible to represent the College.

Melbourne is home to a large community of Antonians—arguably the biggest concentration of old boys outside Kandy and Colombo. It comes as little surprise, then, that a remarkable succession of rugby captains from the years 1963 to 1970 have made Melbourne their home. The visit of the 1968 skipper, Abdul Kuthus, from Sri Lanka provided a fitting opportunity for his fellow former captains to reunite and extend a warm welcome. Michael Macky (1965), Paddy Guneratne (1966), Basil Hyde (1967), John Henry (1969) and Peter Corteling (1970) were among a small group of Antonians who hosted Kuthus to lunch today.

Jayaweera began his cricketing journey in 1919 and was appointed captain of the college side in 1921. His extraordinary bowling feats are recorded in glowing terms in the History of Antonian Cricket – A Season by Season Review, and his statistics alone provide a measure of his greatness. In just three seasons of school cricket, he played only 17 matches yet captured an astonishing 133 wickets at an average of 9.87, including 14 five-wicket hauls in an innings and six ten-wicket hauls in a match

Cricket may be the stage for Sianna Ginger today, but her story is woven from a legacy that began long before she picked up a bat. The 20-year-old rising star plays with both a love for the game and pride in her Antonian roots, passed down from her father, David, a former student of St. Anthony’s College, Kandy. With family influence and her own determination, Sianna is fast becoming one of the most exciting young players in women’s cricket.

The clock rolled back to the  1980s, a time when Sri Lanka was witnessing the rise of a prodigious young opening batsman. At just 19 years old, he had already dominated the school cricket scene and was rapidly rising through the ranks, around the same time Aravinda de Silva was beginning to carve out his legendary international career…

Widely regarded as the fastest bowler of his era, in both school and club cricket, Jack Robertson regularly had batsmen flinching in self-preservation. He was a genuinely fearsome prospect—an uncommon sight in Sri Lankan cricket at the time—and his raw pace and aggression fast-tracked him to national honours at the remarkably young age of 21.

In the past three weeks, we have seen the rise of three young batting talents who have stamped their presence in exciting fashion. Dinul Wijesinghe, Kaushika Kumarasinghe, and Yohan Senanayake have scored fighting centuries to bring honour to College. Let us explore more of their achievements…

Former Antonian skipper Mahesh Goonatileke is widely regarded as the greatest Test wicketkeeper Sri Lanka has ever produced. He was the first Antonian, as well as the first graduate, to play Test cricket for our country. In his five test matches, Mahesh batted sometimes as a tail-ender (at No. 10) and other times, opening the batting with Sidath Wettimuny.

Antonian skipper Thisara Ekanayake’s latest century against Wesley College was his fourth ton for the season in Colombo, to add to his previous three centuries in the major city against Nalanda College at Campbell Place, St Joseph’s College at Darley Road and St Peter’s College at Bambalapitiya. He thus became the first Antonian ever to record four centuries in Colombo in one season.

The first encounter on record between St Anthony’s College, Kandy and St Benedict’s College took place on 16th October 1909 in Colombo as a “day game”, which resulted in a 35-run win to the Bens. The regular 2-day fixtures between the two sides commenced on 30th and 31st March 1917 at Bogambara and have continued to this day, with a record of 24 wins for SACK and 15 wins for SBC.

The first two-day game between St Anthony’s College, Kandy and S Thomas College, Mount Lavinia was played on 9th and 10th March 1917 in Colombo, with the Antonians emerging as winners by 5 wickets. The 1918 encounter ended in a tame draw but not before skipper Jack Anderson made history with his monumental innings of 291. This was the highest individual innings in all cricket at the time, not just school games.

The Antonians defeated Nalanda College Colombo convincingly by 10 wickets at Campbell Place, Colombo, to register their fifth outright win in 2024, adding to their successes against Dharmaraja College, Ananda College, St Sebastian’s College and St Benedict’s College. This was the Antonians first win against the Nalandians since 1962, thus breaking a 62-year hoodoo and only the second win in history against the Colombo school.

The Trinity-Antonian encounters began in 1914 and have continued for over 110 years, with a total of 106 matches played by the conclusion of the inaugural three-day game in 2025, which ended in a draw at Katugastota.. Here is a comprehensive statistical analysis of the series.

Scoring a double century in any form of cricket, let alone at the school level, is a remarkable feat that occurs infrequently. Thus, it comes as no surprise that only three players have achieved this rare milestone at the Katugastota Oval in First XI cricket since its establishment in 1938. A Peterite and two Antonians are in this exclusive club.

The series that commenced in 1980 at Asgiriya, has been a regular fixture over the last four decades except for 2001, 2020 and 2021. Out of the 43 matches played so far, TCK has 21 wins, SACK 17 wins, one game was tied (2014) and four other encounters ended without a decision due to rain (1993, 2003, 2008 and 2023).

The 2018/2019 cricket season will go down in the Antonian history as the year that brought us back to where we belong – Division One, after lingering in the lower division for five long years.

Following an outstanding year in 2017/2018, the Antonian cricket team pressed home the momentum this year to qualify for Division 1 after a lapse of five years. We are back where we belong!