With school cricket ‘Big Match’ season on the way, President Ranil Wickremesinghe also recently recounted an incident that had taken place when he, together with a group of his friends, had gone ‘trucking’ during the Big Match period, where they had ‘jumped into’ a leading girls’ school in Colombo.

Addressing a gathering of old and present Royalists, Wickremesinghe recounted the fun days at school and how they had gone to Visakha Vidyalaya during the Big Match season and had been escorted out by the school’s principal at the time. He further noted that he had once again returned to Visakha some years later as the Education Minister and was escorted into the school by the same principal who had escorted him out.

“There is a senior from my time here. You talked of what I did at the Royal-Thomian, I won’t talk of what you did at the Royal-Thomian. Those were days when we could enjoy life. I think not only me, but a fair number had old crocs. I remember once we went to Visakha and we jumped in and Mrs. Jayasinghe who was the principal escorted us out. The next time I went to Visakha, the principal escorted me in since I was then the Minister of Education. I reminded her of what she had done earlier. That’s what life has been,” Wickremesinghe said with a laugh.

“Certainly in the university I learnt law, but I learnt of life at Royal College,” the President added.