Dharmaraja–Kingswood Cricket Encounter

Dharmaraja-Kingswood Cricket Encounter
106th Dharmaraja-Kingswood Cricket Encounter at Pallekele International Cricket Stadium.
Sport	Cricket
Timeline	1893 – present
Tournament format	Annual two-day test match encounter
Participants	Dharmaraja College Kingswood College
Current champion	Dharmaraja College (2012)
Most successful	Dharmaraja College 33 Kingswood College 19 Drawn 54

The Dharmaraja–Kingswood Cricket Encounter is a cricket match between two government-run national schools in Kandy, Sri Lanka, Dharmaraja College (with approximately 4,500 students) and Kingswood College (with approximately 2,500 students). It is the oldest cricket match series in the central province, having been played for 106 years. It is also known as the "Battle of the Maroons". The first match was played in 1893, with the Dharmaraja College team captained by the great educationist, later Sir Don Baron Jayathilake, who was the principal of Dharmaraja at that time. The Kingswood team was captained by A.E. Spencer. It was played at the Bogambara Stadium, which is no longer a cricket venue. That match, and some others that followed, were not exclusively schoolboy matches as they included a few members of the staff from each school. The first all-schoolboy Big Match was played in 1899 with J.C. de Mel captaining Dharmaraja and T.B. Marshall leading Kingswood. It was played at the Asgiriya International Cricket stadium until 2010. Since 2011, it has been played at Pallekele International Cricket Stadium.

This match is played for the T.B. Tennakoon Memorial Trophy.

Up to 2014, 108 cricket matches have been played. So far, Dharmaraja leads with 33 wins against 19 by Kingswood with 54 matches ending in a draw, including all matches from 1981 to 2011. The last time a decision was possible during the series was in 1980, when Dharmaraja defeated Kingswood by nine wickets under the captaincy of Janaka Mendis. Kingswood's last win was in 1957 under Maurice Fernando. On 26 March 2011, Dharmaraja College registered a seven wicket win under the captaincy of Hemal Munaweera at the Pallekale Cricket International stadium, ending 30 years of indecision.