A brilliant indication of Big Match Season or ‘March Madness’ as it’s more affectionately recognised among school-boys island-wide is possibly the appearance of unofficial Big Match merchandise street vendors that mysteriously pop up in-front of your school (I’ve always wondered how this seasonal unemployment affects them, what occupations do they do for the rest of the year?).
If that isn’t noticeable, perhaps the abundance of flags fluttering from school vans during school time rush hours or the bumper-to-bumper traffic that is caused by a ritual we hold close to our hearts known as ‘Trucking’ should be a good indicator.
If it is still unnoticeable, then you definitely need to consider heightening your senses during the time of March and April because someone really is missing out on the yearly festivities.
Big Matches; popular to some belief is, but not limited to just a two days test match and a one
day limited overs match. They are just the two star events in a stream of equivalently exciting events.
As a student from Ananda College some of my best memories were created not during these said star events but during the events such as the:
- Prefects’ Match
- Teachers’ Match
- And the Vehicle Parade that are held in relation to the 50 Over Match and the Limited Over Match.
Teachers who you might generally consider to be the athletic equivalent of a Sloth or a Koala are able to garner some nods of respect throughout an entire academic year based on their surprising performances during the match. (I also presume having bragging rights in the staff-room during tea-breaks is an added benefit.)
One could argue that their heart might not be ‘into-it’ as their alma-mater might not be the particular school they are playing for. But take it from a student who has first-hand experience regarding these events; the match is not won until the last ball. A match played by adults with a physic that is not suited for anything remotely athletic has more zeal than to what it seems on paper. This obviously creates a better student- teacher dynamic that is reflective on the educational aspects as well since students would inherently consider a teacher to be more than an individual planted by the Ministry of Education for (sadly) low wages, but as an individual who surely wants the school to succeed in all aspects.
The fitting word for the Vehicle Parade or the Cycle Parade as some schools call it is ‘hectic’. The tradition at Ananda is for the team to travel in a two-story bus with a ‘Papare Band’ and a procession of usually 200+ cars. Some schools like D. S. Senanyake College takes it a step further with their ‘Psycho Parade’ by organising the
largest street procession in the country.
Sri Lanka’s March Madness – Big Match 2017
The crown for the oldest of these encounters goes to the annual encounter between Royal College and S.Thomas College, M. Lavinia their maiden match airing back in 1879; to put things into perspective a certain Thomas Alva Edison invented a strange glowing contraption called the Light Bulb the exact same year. However the Big Match that has produced the most amounts of Test Players into the Sri Lankan National Team, would be the Battle of The Maroons; with a total of 32 out of 144 past Test Players coming out of these two institutions.
138th Battle of the Blues between Royal College and St Thomas.
It is quite uncommon for the Two Day Match to end with a winner as both teams from their respective schools are more often than not equally matched (part of the package when you call it a rivalry) so in most years the match is a draw.
However, because the sample size we consider now is comparatively smaller one could easily identify a match win with the emergence of an iconic sportsmen. Muttaih Muralitaran for St. Anthony’s College Kandy, Kumar
Sangakkara for Trinity College Kandy, Arjuna Ranatunge for Ananda College are just some examples we
could use in showing how much of an advantage a team must have to win the coveted 50 Overs Match.
Sangakkara & Mural
Since most schools (as of the time this article is written) are boys’ schools perhaps now you have grasped as to why this is such a big deal not only for school boys but those who gained an education from those respective institutions.
It is not just a years’ worth of bragging rights in private tuition classes or in banter near the coffee machine in your office; a win in a Big Match is you truly witnessing future star-players that would be known in the International Arena.
