Peterites have a proud sporting history

St. Peter’s College, Colombo, one of the largest Catholic schools in the country will celebrate 100 years today (January 18,). It will mark an important milestone in the College calendar, as the boys in blue, white and gold cherish and celebrate the completion of the century of their alma mater.

Peterites have a proud history in the sports field where they have excelled to reach National as well as International level especially in cricket ,Rugby and athletic fields .Producing a fully-fledged individual has always been the vision and mission of the College, said Rector Fr. Rohitha Rodrigo who was one time Prefect of Games rendering yeoman service to promote College sports .

Rev Fr Rohitha Rodrigo

*Dr H. I. K. Fernando* (born 4 January 1933) is a former St Peters cricketer who was Ceylon’s leading wicket keeper from 1953 to 1970. He was also a doctor and a brigadier in the Sri Lanka Army .He captained the College cricket team in 1951 and 1952 and was schoolboy cricketer of the year in 1952.

He continued to represent Ceylon throughout the 1950s and 1960s. He led the Ceylon team that toured Malaysia and Singapore in 1957,and was the chief wicket-keeper in Ceylon’s two major tours in the 1960s.He is one of the best cricketers produced by St Peters and had a rare achievement excelling in both education and sports .

Russel Arnold 1997 to 2004 played for Sri Lanka presently famous International cricket commentator ,Roy Dias played from 1982- 87 also Vice captain of the inaugural Test against England later became the National coach, David Hyen the stylish cricketer played from 1969 to 1975, Clive Inman (top class first class cricketer) ,Vinothen John 83/84 and Rumesh Ratnayake 1983 to 92 the former two National pacemen Ratnayake is presently Sri Lanka interim coach in the Zimbabwe series Kaushal Lokuarachchi, 2003/2004,Tony Opatha 1975/79 the paceman who passed away recently ,Angelo Perera 2013/16, played for ODI’ s Amal Silva wicket keeper batsman 1983/88, later became National cricket selector , Malinda Warnapura 2007/2009 the opener who later coached the College team presently at SLC coaching staff , Chatura Pieris 2012 Under 19 captain led the team to reach semi finals , Wanuja Sahan who is in 2022 under 19 squad and all these cricketers brought honour to the school .

Russel Arnold

Dilanka Wijesekera

Akalanka Pieris most talented swimmer produced by St Peters who won South Asian and Asian medals bringing honour to the country .

Having the privilege of being the fourth institution to introduce the oval shaped ball game to the island, Enthusiastic young Rugby hopefuls of St. Peter’s College donned the now glorious College Colours of Blue, White and Gold for the first time, in 1932 St. Peter’s College has produced many brilliant rugby players in their 90 y ear old Rugby history feeding National teams with high quality players both with skills and discipline coming out of its system in every decade. .

Many Peterites have featured prominently in All Ceylon, Ceylonese or Sri Lankan XV’s or even at 7’s. They’ve brought much honour and glory to St. Peter’s College, its rugby and its fervent followers when ever they’ve donned the Blue White and Gold jersey or the national jersey against visiting teams or playing on foreign soil.

In the last decade, players like Dilanka Wijesekera who was the youngest school boy player to represent both national 7s and 15s side, Dilan Abeygoonawardena, Poornaka Delpachithra, Mohamed Sheriff, Rajiv Perera,

Ishan Noor, Keith Gurusinghe, Suhiru Anthony, Sandun Hearth, Dhanushka Ranjan, Shenal Dias have proved that St. Peter’s Rugby has always understood it’s National duty and have performed it well.

Especially mention about Archibald Perera 1936 (invincible rugby champions for the first time and he was one among the few Ceylonese to represent All Ceylon. He was subsequently a legendary coach from 1956 to 1982).

There has been a renaissance in Athletics at St. Peter’s recently which has created National history by winning all the National Awards offered in the National Inter School level Athletics for the calendar year 2018.Ranga Wimalawansa had chance to represent 2000 Olympic as a relay member . Football, Tennis , Badminton, Basketball, Hockey, Table Tennis ,Chess are the other sports fields in which they have excelled.

The 100-year Anniversary celebration of the College will be held today (18 ) Archbishop Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith will grace the occasion with several distinguished old boys .