At last! Turf pitches for Police Grounds Kandy

Mariks from Kandy
Police Grounds Kandy, known earlier as the Military Barracks, which produced top sportsmen and women will be given a badly needed face-lift by the Police Department.

Plans have been finalised for the laying of four turf wickets, and work on this will commence on February 15. This is bound to help Kandy’s cricketers in a big way and it would be an additional benefit if side wickets are also provided. Expert curator Anurdha Polonowita will handle the job.

The Police ground was constructed some time in the 1940s with the assistance of Rev.Fr. Robert M. Perera together with the students of St.Sylvester’s College and the Kandy Police under the leadership of L.I. de Silva Superintendent of Police Central Province. The matting wicket was prepared by Marathelis, Trinity’s famous head groundsman. The pavilion was also opened around that time by Sir Richard Aluwihare.

However, will this very commendable turf wicket project at the Police Grounds affect the inter-school cricket matches? Today there is a dire need for cricket grounds for Kandy schools and clubs.Turf pitches for cricket are only available at the Campus, Trinity Ground Asgiriya and St. Anthony’s Katugastota.

In Kandy, there is an Association called the Kandy District Cricket Association that does nothing on this subject. If not for the Division III tournament of Sri Lanka Cricket there will be no club cricket in Kandy.

The Police Grounds Kandy has helped many a sportsman in hockey, football, athletics and cricket, though this ground was a pint-sized one with a road running right round the ground. Earlier it was under the military. That was a time when football and hockey were given priority by the military men.

During L.I. de Silva’s time Kandy Police had top class cricket, football and hockey teams while doing well in athletics too.

Later on, people like F.N.D Jilla, K.S.Van Royen, Merrick Gunarthne, M.Shanmugam, P.B. Ekanayake, Gamini Gunawardene, Premadasa Udugampola, Chandra Mendis, H.M.S. Senevirathne Banda, A.S. Samarasinghe, Bodi Liyanage, Lakshman Senevirathne, Mahinda Balalsuriya, Asoka Ratnaweera and Nimal Mediwake gave their best to develop sport and maintain the Police grounds. In addition to the above, in the early days, great services were rendered by a sportsman by the name of S.M.David who was in charge of the grounds and Jayasinghe the ground boy who can still be seen at Police Grounds.

Another cricket ground with turf pitches was badly needed for Kandy and early completion of the project is eagerly looked forward to.