Dilip fine cricketer and coach

Cricketer, and cricket coach, Right hand top order batsman, wicket keeper and occasional right arm off spinner, all rounder coloursman first ever under 13 cricket captain and first ever Big Match captain of his school athlete, Lakspray Trophy and Mercantile cricketer and present head coach of his alma mater and champion athlete Colomba Arachchige Dilip Prasanna has brought honour and immense alory to his alma mater Royal College Panadura.

Dilip Prasanna

Dilip was born on 3rd July 1973 and admitted to Royal College, Panadura. He commenced his athletic career in 1980 and participated at the school inter house sports meet and he came first in 100 and 200 metres and Long Jump and came second in High Jump and he continued to win his events up to grade five and in 1983 he participated for the Divisional meet and at the District meet he won the 100 metres and came second in 200 metres. He participated in athletics at the school level and he swept the board annually and became the uncrowned champion athlete in all age groups during his school career and did not go further.

In the meantime his parents C.A.Ananda and Lakni Jayanthi Rodrigo realizing that their son’s forte is cricket handed over him to the then school Master in Charge of cricket Leslie Silva and the coach was G.Ranasinghe in 1985.

Then in the next two years he played for the under 15 teams and in his second year he captained the team and went on to represent the Kalutara District Team. His under 17 first year they reached the finals and in the following year he captained the team for the Astra Margarine Trophy and came up to the finals.

His first year in first eleven cricket team was in 1989/90 season and he scored 758 runs with a century with four half centuries and had 24 Victims behind the stumps and in his second year he notched up 865 with three tons and four fifties and claimed 21 victims and in his final year he collected 685 runs with three centuries and five fifties and grabbed 30 victims behind the stamps.

His first captain was Chandana Dilip and once again he joined the Panadura Royalists Cricket history when he captained the inaugural Big Match against this arch rivals Panadura Johnians in 1992. During his first eleven career he has collected 2308 runs at a healthy average of 76.7 which consisted of seven centuries and 13 fifties.

With all these under his belt he joined Panadura Sports Club and he was a unanimous choice for the Division One Lakspray Trophy Team and he had the distinction of representing them for twelve consecutive years and from 2004 to 2006 he played for the Division Two Donavon Andree Trophy.

After hanging up his boots and bid adieui to club cricket and he commenced coaching at St.Anthoney’s College Panadura under 13, 17 and first eleven teams up to 2004 and joined St.Anthoney’s College Wattala in 2003 as under 17 coach.

In 2012 he took wings to Malaysia for a coaching stint at Malays cricket association for two years and after returning to the island he joined as the under 17 and first eleven coach at Issipathana Vidyalaya. In 2018 he was appointed as the Head Coach of Royal Panadura and also he is serving as the Junior Head Coach since 2021 at Kalutara Vidyalaya.