The 51st Senior National Basketball Tournament will commence on the 2nd of February 2017 and will go on for a span of two weeks, where 46 teams divided in three categories will compete against each other for supremacy. Gampaha District BA will be competing in the Level I, only in the men`s category.

Team’s past achievements

  • Colombo Super League champions 2007
  • Senior Nationals Runners-up 2000
  • Junior Nationals Champions – 2004

Gampaha District BA comprises of personnel from two prestigious clubs based from the north of Colombo namely Wattala BC and Don Bosco BC based in Negombo. There have been many great players coming from this region but unfortunately for the clubs located here, those players move to elite clubs based in Colombo to play during their prime. Gampaha District BA takes great pride in their home-groomed products and their proud history.

Jayantha RanawanaCoach Jayantha Ranawana speaking to ThePapare.com said, “I have been coaching the Gampaha district team for nearly 20 years and in that stint we have reached the finals of Senior Nationals (2000) and become champions at the Junior Nationals level (2004). We have great chemistry in the team as our unit consists of players who have been playing together since the U-13 level. But we have certain issues which we’ve had to face in preparing for the Senior Nationals, the biggest of which is the fact that we are only able to come together as a team and practice during the weekends as most of our players have a day job and we do not have floodlight facilities at St. Anthony’s, Wattala to train at night during the weekdays”.

It is evident that the Gampaha District BA team is going into this Senior Nationals having faced many adversities. Gampaha District has lost some of their best players to Hambantota District BA and Sri Lanka Army SC going into this tournament. But there is a sense of determination amongst the boys to regain lost pride which might go a long way in determining their fate at the 51st Senior Nationals.

With tons of experience under their belts and possessing some mean three points shooters within the contingent they will definitely pose a threat to the rest of the teams. They will focus more on the shots outside the perimeter but will have to up their game in the offensive rebound aspect so they will have enough cover to back up their strategy.

Jeewan PriyankaraSkipper Jeewan Priyankara speaking to ThePapare.com “As coach pointed out we are only able to train during the weekends resulting in us having relatively little time to come together as a team and prepare for this tournament. But I believe all our players have very good basics and have been coached well which should help us. We have good experience in our midst as most of our players have played Basketball for over a decade. We don’t have very complicated game plans. We will take the 1st game we have and give it our best shot. I do not think losing out some big names to other clubs will be a big problem as we have been trained not to rely on one or two players but rather to play as a team. We have at least 5 dead-eye 3-Pointers in our arsenal and that will have a big impact in games.  We have a home-groomed team and take great pride in it and will give it everything we’ve got at this edition of the Senior nationals”

Team’s weaknesses

  • Less rim protection/ interior defense
  • Less preparation time as a Team and insufficient facilities
  • Poor in Defensive Rebounds

Team’s strengths

  • 3 point shooting
  • Team chemistry
  • Experience

Photo Album: 51st Senior Nationals 2017 | Gampaha District BA

Gampaha District BA Team Line-up

Jeewan Priyankara, Dilan Perera, Milan Chathuranga, Niroshan Danusha, Pradeep Pushpakumara, Sanketha Jayarathne, Prageeth Pushpakumara, Jeyakumar Dhivyaruban, Sean Niki, Viran Fernando, Lahiru Dilshan, Akila Senal, Anton Niroshan (Assistant Coach), Jayantha Ranawana (Head Coach).