"A move by sports minister Gamini Lokuge to push for the renaming of the Asgiriya International Cricket Stadium as the Muttiah Muralitheran stadium will be met by opposition from a powerful Old Boys Association of Trinity College, the Daily Mirror learns.
Lokuge announced in parliament this week of a move to rename the stadium after consulting Trinity College Kandy which has custody of the picturesque ground.
A senior committee member of the Trinity Old Boys Association said they would shut the door on any talk of renaming the stadium in honour of the record-breaking spinner who is a product of St. Anthony’s College Kandy with whom the Trinitians play their annual Big Match cricket encounter.
“We have yet to receive a request for a meeting to discuss the matter or a proposal for us to consider. But even if there is a request or a proposal there is no way we will agree to rename our ground”, said the senior committee member. “What we have heard is only through the newspapers”.
The late minister Gamini Dissanayake, who was the Cricket Board president when Sri Lanka was elevated to Test status in 1981, is credited as being the architect behind the creation of the Asgiriya International stadium, the only Test venue in the world owned by a school.
The late Dissanayake was an old boy of Trinity College.
Sri Lanka Cricket’s interim committee secretary K. Mathivanan said they had nothing to do with Lokuge’s proposal.
“To be honest we don’t know whose proposal this is”, he claimed.
“We have no authority to rename grounds which do not come under Sri Lanka Cricket. Asgiriya does not belong to us and it is Trinity College’s ground”, he added.
Sri Lanka has played 21 Tests at Asgiriya winning seven matches and losing nine." Writes Asanka Gammanpila for the Daily Mirror
Saturday, December 15, 2007
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2 Comments:
What a hilarious offer, naming a college ground (obviously privately owned) jst because murali broke the record in it!!! Nonsense
(No disrespect for murali - he is the greatest bowler in the era if not he s one of the all time greats)
its jst that the politicians want to get there share of the fame.
You can imagine how foolish and nieeve this sri lankan sports minister is, does he really have any idea about the Trinity's long history and its traditions. I really feel sorry for this minister.
Murali is well respected among the circles, but does he really want his name on the TCK grounds?
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