Thurstan, Isipathana herald the ‘Big’ match season

By M. Naushad Amit
Security measures will be at the highest level at SSC on February 29 and March 1 for the Thurstan-Isipathana ‘Big’ match as both schools promise an incident free encounter. This will be the first of the ‘Big’ matches for the season as they battle it out for the 45th time with intentions to set an example to others on hosting a ‘Big’ match without any unsavoury incidents. Both schools took a bold decision to hold the annual encounter as scheduled after the Ministry of Education issued a circular advising school heads to take the responsibility for the security concerns at the venue.

“We will make sure that the annual encounter will be incident-free since this will be the first big match of the season. We have taken necessary security steps to prevent any kind of incident that will affect the encounter. We will try to set an example to others who will follow us in this season. If something happens at our match other matches will also be affected. So we will endeavour to ensure things go smoothly throughout the two days,” said the principal of Isipathana, K.D. Punyadasa at a press conference held at the MCA recently to announce the encounter officially.

The ‘Big’ match will be held under tight security provided by the Sri Lanka Police, Sri Lanka Army and a private security firm. The cadets and the prefects of both schools will also join the Armed forces to strengthen the security at the SSC. The traditional ‘truck parades’ outside the venue will be prohibited this year and students are advised to be accompanied by their parents to the match. Only vehicles with a valid car pass will be allowed into the SSC premises.

Meanwhile both teams are determined to break the eight-year deadlock at this year’s encounter.