Richmond 60 Club felicitates their national cricketers and skippers
View(s):The Richmond 60 Club, the most senior past pupils of Richmond College based in Colombo, recently celebrated a landmark event, by felicitating four of its past cricketers playing in the national teams in 2025. All three formats of the game — T20, ODIs and Tests — are led by Richmondites in 2025. Dhananjaya de Silva is leading the Test team while Charith Asalanka is captaining the country both in T20 and ODIs. The leading allrounders Wanindu Hasaranga and Kamindu Mendis, the ICC player of the year 2024, are past Richmond cricketers as well. It is unlikely that any other school in the country could emulate such a unique achievement.
The felicitation dinner was a colourful event held at the Grant Maitland in Colombo 7. It was attended by about 200 guests including the President and other officials of Sri Lanka Cricket, many past captains and cricketers of Richmond, past principals of the college and other invitees. The coach who was behind the renaissance of cricket at Richmond, Dhammika Sudarshana, was also felicitated along with the then Principal E.M.S. Ekanayake.
The cricketers were ceremonially received and conducted to the hall lead by the bagpipers of Sri Lanka Navy. The music for the event was provided by the Navy band with the compering duties handled by veteran cricket commentator Roshan Abeysinghe. The players and the coach were presented with mementoes, paintings of the iconic sites on the Richmond Hill, one of the most picturesque schools in the country.
Out of about 175 Test players so far since 1982, when Sri Lanka gained Test status, Richmond has had seven, the largest number from any school outside the Western Province. The other three were Champaka Ramanayake, Chamila Gamage and Suranga Lakmal. In the recent past, performance of the college in domestic cricket too has been exemplary. Richmond teams were adjudged the best team over several years and the champions in All-Island Under-19 Cricket Tournaments as well as in junior tournaments. Several of their players were the schoolboy cricketers of the year on several occasions.
Richmond College, established by the Methodist Church in 1876, has launched a year of events to mark its 150th anniversary in July next year. According to the recorded history of cricket matches, Richmond was only the third school in the country to start playing cricket as far back as 1887. Their annual big match against Mahinda College is in its 120th year now and was played over three days in March each year.