Sri Lanka’s Under-19 cricketers created history by becoming the first team from the country to win a series in Australia, something which the senior team could not have achieved, thanks to a no-nonsense stand taken by Sri Lanka Cricket chairman D. S. de Silva who made certain the racketeers and crooks did not have a field day in selecting their “favourites” for the five-match tour.

Without turning a blind eye to unscrupulous schoolboy selections as his predecessors have done, de Silva hand picked former Sri Lanka players Aravinda de Silva, Upul Chandana and Naveed Nawaz to make the final selections from among 116 players that formed a provisional pool.

The brightest spark was that Sri Lanka beat Australia 3-2 on some of the most vibrant pitches imaginable, under the captaincy of St. Peter’s College allrounder Chathura Peiris.

Like a blessing in disguise the Sri Lankans were jolted in the opening match at Darwin which was reduced to 25 overs due to rain where Australia made 182 and Sri Lanka replied with 164 with Royal College batsman Kithruwan Vithanage making a brave 47.

In the second game the Sri Lankans were not discouraged by a total of 252 made by the home team and won the match with Banuka Rajapakse also from Royal College making a rousing 154 with 14 fours and eight huge sixes.

He was supported by Mahinda College’s Romesh Buddhika who chipped in with 57.

Sri Lanka then took a 2-1 lead by winning the third game as the pace trio of Peiris, Rajapakse and Charith Jayampathi made inroads into the Australian batting to bundle them out for 160 and win by five wickets with Vithanage contributing a top score of 61.

The Australians had some consolation by winning the fourth one-dayer to level the series 2-2 but the Sri Lankans snatched a win in the fifth and deciding game at the Marara Oval in Darwin as Trinity College spinner Rukshan Jaleel and Saranga Rajaguru from a school in Kandy named Nugewela Central, played their part to restrict Australia for 122.

On a turning pitch Sri Lanka reached the target losing five wickets in 23.2 overs to end a successful tour.

Nawaz played the role of the head coach while Aravinda was the batting coach with Chandana as the fielding coach. The team was managed by former Tamil Union and All Ceylon player M. Devaraj, a gentleman to his fingertips.