| has gloss | eng: The Dharmaraja–Kingswood Cricket Encounter is a cricket match between Dharmaraja College, Kandy (a government-run national school accommodates approximately 4500 students) and Kingswood College, Kandy (another government-run national school accommodates approximately 2500 students). It is the longest cricket match series in the central province, Sri Lanka, having being played for 103 years . It is also known as the "Battle of the Maroons" in public. The first match was played in 1893, with Dharmaraja College team captained by the great educationist, later Sir Don Baron Jayathilake, who was the principal of Dharmaraja at that time. Kingswood team was captained by A.E. Spencer. It was played at the Bogambara Stadium, Kandy which is no longer a cricket venue. But that match and some others followed were not all schoolboy matches as they included a few members of the staff of each school. The first all schoolboy Big Match was played in 1899 with J.C. de Mel captaining Dharmaraja and T.B. Marshall leading the Kingswood. Now it is normally played at the Asgiriya international Cricket stadium. |
