Friendly Basketball Match

We (WSO2) played a friendly Basketball match against some of my friends at Colombo University. We played the match on 24th Thursday at British School's outdoor Basketball court. This was the second time that we met in a friendly match. Last year the Colombo University guys won the match and this time around we won the match.

When comparing our performance against our previous encounter, our team has improved a lot.

Since we had 2 games in 2 consecutive years, we are planning to take this ahead and have this friendly Basketball match as an annual event.

I should like to thank my junior match mates at Colombo University for coming there to play a match during a University vacation and the crowd for coming there to cheer us.

WSO2 Basketball finals 2010

QUALIFYING MATCHES

The 3rd annual WSO2 Basketball tournament was held over the month of October. We had 4 teams and 6 qualifying matches leading up to the finals. Wild Boars and Legions were the teams with the leading scores and they were chosen to be in the finals. When comparing with last 2 years, this time around every team had a balanced set of players. It can be seen by results of the preliminary round matches, where 3 teams had won 2 out of 3 matches they faced. Therefore, we had to choose the finalists by getting the accumulated scores of each team.

THE TEAMS
The Legions were led by our CEO, Dr. Sanjiva Weerawarna and the Wild Boars were led by our VP of Engineering, Samisa Abeysinghe.

====================================================
Legions              |         Wild Boars       |
====================================================
Amal Rangana            |Amila Suriyarachchi       |
Chamara Silva           |Asanka Abeysinghe (VC)    |
Chanaka Jayasena        |Asela Pathberiya          |
Danushka Menikkumbura   |Deependra Ariyadewa       |
Flora Ariyapala         |Dimuthu Leelarathne       |
Gayani Rajanayake       |Hasmin Abdul Cader        |
Isuru Suriarachchi      |Heshan Suriyarachchi      |
Janath Sivayoganathan   |Milinda Lakmal Pathirage  |
Kalpani Wanigaratne     |Nandika Jayawardana       |
Mahesh Marcus           |Rajika Kumasiri           |
Sanjiva Weerawarana (C) |Samisa Abeysinghe (C)     |
Srinath Perera          |Sumedha Rubasinghe        |
Tharindu Mathew         |Udeshika Ratnavira        |
Thilina Buddika         |Thilanga Pitigala         |
Waruna Ranasinghe       |Anjana Fernando           |
Miyuru Daminda          |Yasith Nakandana          |
Kasun Indrasiri         |Lavi De Silva             |
Gayani Marasinghe       |Sanjaya Vithanagama       |
Pavithra Madurangi      |Denis Perera              |
Arjuna Samaraweera      |Shammi Jayasinghe         |
Asiri Rathnayake        |P.K.A. Thilini Ishaka     |
Eshara Kalpanie Fonseka |Kathiravelu Pradeeban     |
Janaka Ranabahu         |Udayanga Wickramasinghe   |
Sarasi Madushika        |Pradeep Fernando          |
Nirdesha Munasinghe     |Hasini Gunasinghe         |
Charith Wickramarachchi |Hasini Yatawatte          |
Dinusha Dilrukshi       |Sanjeewa Mallalgoda       |
Manisha Ellaperuma      |                          |
Meeyoni Fernando        |                          |
====================================================

THE FINAL
It was a rain hit final and we played in our usual outdoor Basketball court - the car-park ;). Eventhough it was raining we could see the crowd standing around the court and cheering for their favourites.

The Legions started playing very aggressively from the word go and they were determind to not let the Championship slip away from them. Wildboars on the other hand was equal to the task and did not want to repeat the 2009 finals (in which WBs became runners up). It was an evenly contested match and The Legions were leading at half time whisle. Although they were leading, the Wild Boars were not too far behind (I can't recall the half-time score).

Then we started the second half. In the second half Wild Boars caught up to Legions score. I remember a point where the scores were levelled at 36-all. From this point onwards, non of the two teams didn't let the other take the lead for more than 2 points. It was showing the symptoms of going for an extra time ending.

FINAL WORKOUT
As the game progressed, I was getting the feeling that the game should be finished by now. So I asked Pumika who was near the stop clock, "how much time left?". She told me 30 seconds. I instantly thought of getting a timeout, but since we had the ball in our hand and we were attacking, I didnt want to take a timeout. (At that point if I took a timeout, it will inturn let the Legions know of the stop clock. Therefore, I opted not to take a timeout :) )

Asanka was controlling the ball at that time. I shouted at him "SHOOT! SHOOT!" (BTW, the scores were levelled at this point, 42-all). I don't know whether he heard my screms in the middle of the roar from the crowd. Anjana, Ude and I, was guarded by the defenders. Asanka, cleverly dribbled towards the baseline, which resulted in two defenders going towrds him to guard his move. That move, freed Samisa (the defender that should guard Samisa was now defending Asanka). Then Asanka passed the ball back to Samisa, who hit a long range 2 pointer to seal the win for the Wild Boars. That marked the end of a nail biting final. A final which I will remember for a long time. :)



Hats off to Legions for giving such a good game and in my book, both the teams were winners that night. They both fought hard to win the Championship. If you have a look back at the Legions past performances, this is a significant improvement from their side.

SCORE SHEETS

==============================================================
Date                     |    Teams                     |Score
==============================================================
Wednesday 6th 4.00 pm    | Cloud bots Vs. Titans        |31:53
Thursday 7th 4.00 pm     | Legion Vs. Wild Boars        |23:34
Tuesday 12th 4.00 pm     | Titans Vs. Wild Boars        |33:28
Thursday 14th 4.00 pm    | Cloud bots Vs. Legion        |22:54
Tuesday 19th 4.00 pm     | Cloud bots Vs. Wild Boars    |34:61
Thursday 21st 4.00 pm    | Titans Vs. Legion            |29:40
Tuesday 26th 4.00 pm     | Cloud bots Vs. Titans        |41:72
Thursday 28th 7.00 pm    | Wild Boars Vs. Legions       |44:42
==============================================================

OBSERVAIONS
Piyumika was the main person responsible for organizing this year's tournament. She had given attention to detail in organizing this very successful event which everyone enjoyed very much. I take this opportunity to thank (on behalf of all the players) Piyumika and her team for making this a memorable night. Specially the idea to bring in a face painter added color to the event :).

I take the this opportunity to thank the crowd (who came to cheer for us or against us) who supported the players throughout this tournament. If it wasn't for ya'll it wont be an entertaining tournament like this.

As Isuru pointed out the other day, we did not have any serious injuries (broken bones, torn muscles, etc:) ) during this tournament. That means we are starting to play real Basketball and we have moved away from playing the Rugby+Basketball [2] hybrid, that we were used to play :D.

I am finishing off this post with an extract from a Fort Minor song.

This is ten percent luck, twenty percent skill
Fifteen percent concentrated power of will
Five percent pleasure, fifty percent pain
And a hundred percent reason to remember the name

Related Posts
[1] - http://heshans.blogspot.com/2008/10/internship-wso2.html
[2] - http://heshans.blogspot.com/2009/10/basketball-wso2-how-to-survive.html

Pictures courtesy of Chinthana Wilmuna.

Basketball @ WSO2 : How to Survive

It's been a while since I wrote a blogpost that relates to sports. Since annual basketball tournament at wso2 is coming up next week, I thought it would be the perfect time to write a blogpost on WSO2 basketball. The ideas & views expressed below can be a KnowledgeBase for anyone joining wso2 or newbie who wants to play basketball @ wso2.

Wso2 folks dont have a permanent basketball court to play basketball. Instead they have transformed the car park into a basketball court. It is car-park by day and basketball court by night. We have portable baskeball posts, so we move em to the car-park in the evening. The court is not having the ideal dimensions of a standard basketball court; it is due to the limited space available in the car park.

We started playing basketball @ wso2 around 1 year back and we followed it up with a inter-house basketball tournament, which was a blast. It was a very successful event and everyone enjoyed it a lot(apart from the people who got injured while playing lol). Now 1 year has elapsed since the introduction of basketball to wso2 and IMO I say that we are playing a different flavor of basketball.

Basketball is having several flavors ranging from Streetball to Slamball. Wso2's basketball has evolved into a unique flavor apart from these. I'd say it is a hybrid of both basketball and rugby :D. I'd like to call it RugBBall. Since I said that this would be a KB item, following are some tips to be successful(or survive lol) @ basketball court, during practice sessions.

• You should be able to tolerate elbow shots and slaps, cos these arn't fouls :)

• Dont ever argue with guys on "whether it was a foul or not". You could never win that argument :). Therefore it's better to carry on with the game without arguing.

• After a practice session you'd feel like if you were scratched by a kitten and tackled by a NFL linebacker lol.

Those are the fun facts to know before you enter into the bb court.

I will follow this post up with a pre-tournament analysis of the wso2's inter-house basketball teams. So stay tuned ;) .

Internship @ WSO2

I worked as an intern at WSO2 Inc during the last 7 months ( i.e. from February to August). I enjoyed my internship very much. First 2 weeks was the hardest time for me. It was mainly due to the fact that I did not understand a single technical discussion the guys were having with each other. But after some time I was able to get the hang of things and understand what they were talking about.

I worked as a Trainee Software Developer at IFS R & D before I came to do my undergrad studies at UCSC. Therefore I had a bit of an exposure to working environments of IT companies. But when I came to WSO2, it was a completely new experience for me. The guys come to the company to relax themselves. :) Oh yeah. They do not code much during the day. They enjoy playing Foo's ball, table tennis, carom, vii, swimming, basketball. The guys enjoy themselves during the day at Office and do the coding at home during night. Yep that's the kind of night life that they are spending :D. One day a guy was telling me that his mother told him "son you work at office during day and work during night at home. Go and enjoy your life. Do not spend too much time in front of the computer". Sadly his mother did not know that he was spending his day in a "Sports Club". :)Although they were engaged in many sports activities, guys completed the work assigned to them very well. I think this is the main reason behind the success of WSO2.

We had a Basketball Tournament within the company and our house (Wild Boars) won the tournament. We were the unbeaten side in the tournamnt. Our BB team members were Samisa, Asanka, me, Keith, Amila, Udeshika, Dimuthu, DimuthuG, Deep, Chathura, Rajika, Janapriya, Milinda, SanjayaK.

WSO2 released the project I did during my internship last month. I was soooo happy when the release was done. I got a lot of personal emails from the community regarding the project and praising me :) . Deepal ayya was my mentor during my internship. When he left for higher studies, Keith ayya became my mentor. Both these guys helped me during my internship. Specially Keith. I used to bug him a lot with Axis2 questions. He was very patient and never said that he is too busy to answer a question. It's because of their help and guidance that I could successfully complete my internship.

I would like to thank Dr. Sanjiva for giving me this opportunity and Amila, Sandakith, Charitha for selecting me from the interview. Finally I would like to tell all the WSO2 guys that " I'll be back ;) "

Following are some interesting moments from the BB final!

[Winners - Wild Boars!!!]

[Wild Boars enjoying the moment!!]

[ Me having the championship trophy in hand. Samisa (WB captain) congratulating me. Dimuthu and Milinda are in the background]

Venue: WSO2 car-park/BB-court