Beyond the Boundary: Desert Cubs' 15-Year Journey of Giving Back to Sri Lanka

Cricket gave them the world. And every year since 2009, Desert Cubs Cricket Academy has given something back.

When Presley Polonnowita founded Desert Cubs Cricket Academy in the UAE in 2007, he had a vision that extended far beyond the boundary ropes and batting averages. He believed that the most powerful thing cricket could do was not produce champions but to build bridges. Bridges between nations, between the privileged and the under privileged, between a child's present and a brighter future. What began as a simple desire to share a meal with orphaned girls in Kurunegala, Sri Lanka, has grown into over 15 years of continuous, heartfelt charity work that has touched hundreds of lives across the island.

This is that story. In full.

It started with a single visit that changed everything. In 2009, during one of the academy's early tours to Sri Lanka, Presley Polonnowita and a group of Desert Cubs members made their way to the Sputnik Girls' Orphanage in Kurunegala — a small home nestled in the green heartlands of the North Western Province that shelters young girls who have no family to call their own.

They came with gifts, with food, and with time. They sat with the children. They played with them. And in that afternoon, surrounded by laughter and wide-eyed wonder, something was ignited in the hearts of every Desert Cubs member present.

"Sharing a meal with these underprivileged kids gave me immense pleasure and a happiness that can't be explained in words." — Presley Polonnowita, Founder & Head Coach, Desert Cubs

This was not going to be a one-off visit. This was going to be a commitment.

Desert Cubs' first visit to Sputnik Girls' Orphanage, Kurunegala — 2009

Members of Desert Cubs gathered with children — a moment of pure joy that sparked a 15-year mission

The Sputnik Girls' Home with the Desert Cubs banner — a visible bond between UAE and Sri Lanka

Seven years after that first visit, Desert Cubs returned — as if they never really left. The cricket tour to Sri Lanka in 2016 brought the academy back to the Sputnik Girls' Home with donations, activities, and a renewed promise. The photo from that visit tells a story without words: rows of young girls, dressed simply, standing proudly in front of a Desert Cubs banner — a symbol of a friendship that had grown across the ocean between the UAE desert and the Sri Lankan hills.

For many of these girls, visits from Desert Cubs represent more than material support. They represent being seen. Being remembered. Knowing that people in another country — people who found success on cricket fields — still think of them.

That connection is priceless and Desert Cubs has never taken it for granted.

By 2017, Desert Cubs had grown considerably — more players, more coaches, more hearts committed to the cause. The charity programme expanded. This was no longer just about one orphanage. It was about giving every underprivileged young cricketer in Sri Lanka the tools to dream bigger.

The historic Rs. 500,000 cash donation to Sputnik Girls' Orphanage — 2017

In 2017, members of the Desert Cubs Cricket Academy UAE made a cash donation of Rs. 500,000 to the Sputnik Girls' Orphanage — the largest single donation to the home at that point. The handwritten sign held by members said everything: this was not a PR exercise. This was community. This was family.

Two years later, in 2019, the focus shifted to cricket itself. As proud Annites (alumni of St. Anne's College, Kurunegala) living in the UAE, Desert Cubs members collaborated with the Annites Overseas Branch in UAE to donate a comprehensive cricket kit to their alma mater — a donation they had been sustaining for nearly a decade by that point.

Polonnowita reflected on what it meant: "It is our immense pleasure to see this happening every two years and I would like to see our school climbing the ladder of success in Division 1 Schools Cricket." For him, this was personal. For the school's young cricketers, it was transformational.

If any year showed the world what Desert Cubs stood for beyond sport, it was 2022–2023. The academy didn't just donate. They brought legends to the field to raise awareness. They reached three schools in a single tour. And they kept coming back to the girls in Kurunegala who had been waiting for them.

The Roshan Mahanama Friendship Match — February 2023

On 11 February 2023, at the Desert Cubs Cricket Oval at Sharjah English School, something extraordinary happened. Former Sri Lanka cricket legend and ICC Match Referee Roshan Mahanama — one of cricket's all-time great fielders and a 1996 World Cup winner — led the We Are Friends team against an Invitation XI drawn from Sri Lankan Combined Schools UAE.

The event was more than a cricket match. It was a celebration. A fundraiser. A statement that the Desert Cubs community in UAE cared deeply about giving back. Roshan Mahanama's presence drew the community together in a way only cricket can.

"We would be delighted to be a part of all your community work and junior level development programs, and we look forward to assisting you in whatever way we can as the overseas Sri Lankan community in UAE." — From the welcome address at the charity match

The Roshan Mahanama Charity Match — Sharjah English School, 11 February 2023

Cricket Gear Donation to Schools — 2022

Alongside the charity match, Desert Cubs' 2022–2023 saw cricket gear donated to three deserving institutions — all in a single year:

Giriulla Wickramasheela Vidyalaya

Full cricket gear donated to nurture the next generation of cricketers from the Giriulla area.

Middeniya Cricket Club (MCC)

Meedeniya MMV in Walasmulla, Hambantota — cricket gear to develop rural talent in the deep south.

Sputnik Girls' Home, Kurunegala

Another year, another visit — financial support and gifts handed over to the girls who have become like family.

The scale of giving in this single year — a charity match featuring an international cricket legend, gear donations to three institutions, and another visit to Sputnik — reflected how far the programme had grown from that first quiet meal in 2009. Desert Cubs' charity was no longer small. It was a movement.

If in the previous years Desert Cubs proved its compassionate heart, Then 2025 proved its ambition. In partnership with the Rachel Foundation UAE, the academy launched the most comprehensive charitable programme in its history — reaching four schools and the Sputnik Girls' Home, donating 500+ kg of children's storybooks and stationeries, and cricket gears, all timed to coincide with the Desert Cubs Tour of Sri Lanka 2025.

Nearly 300 participants — players, coaches, families and well-wishers — travelled from the UAE. The economic contribution to Sri Lanka alone was estimated at over LKR 200 million. But it were the moments of giving that will be remembered longest.

Sputnik Girls' Home — August 2, 2025

Presley Polonnowita handing over the donation — Sputnik Girls' Home, August 2025

Desert Cubs members with the girls of Sputnik Home — some of whom have known the academy for years

On August 2, 2025, the Desert Cubs team arrived at Sputnik Girls' Home once again — this time with books, financial support, and the warmth of people who had been returning to this same place for almost two decades. The smiles in the photographs need no caption. These are not strangers visiting an orphanage. This is a family reunion.

St. Ann's College — August 2, 2025

On the same day as the Sputnik visit, the team made their way to St. Ann's College, Kurunegala — the school that many Desert Cubs coaches attended in their youth. The donation was comprehensive: cricket equipment, storybooks, and the kind of personal connection that no online charity platform can replicate.

For Presley Polonnowita, handing cricket gear to the school where his own love for the game was ignited is one of the most meaningful moments of every tour. he said, "It is a great feeling when you witness that your support has been utilized properly,"

Desert Cubs team with books and cricket gear at St. Ann's College — August 2025

Kangalla National School & The Boy in the Full Kit

A young cricketer in his full kit — the joy of having the right equipment is written all over his face

Kangalla National School — a future Desert Cubs star in the making

Sometimes, one photograph says more than a thousand words. The image of a young boy standing proudly in a full cricket kit — pads, helmet, gloves, bat — is one of those moments. This is what Desert Cubs' charity work looks like when it lands. Not a statistic. Not a press release. A child, beaming, holding a bat that he might one day use to represent his school, his province, his country.

Kangalla National School received a full donation of cricket equipment, joining a growing list of Sri Lankan schools that have benefited from the Desert Cubs programme. Each school. Each child. Each dream — made a little more possible by people who remember what it felt like to play cricket without the right gear.

Weerasekara National School — Hal Sarigama, Katukithula

Desert Cubs team with students at Weerasekara National School, against the stunning backdrop of rural Sri Lanka — August 2025

In the rolling hills of Katukithula, against a backdrop of lush mountain greenery, Desert Cubs met the students of Weerasekara National School. It was the fourth school visited in the 2025 tour alone. The photograph — Desert Cubs coaches and players standing proudly with a table full of cricket gear and books — captures everything. This is a cricket academy that uses its tours not just to play, but to give.

Looking back across fifteen years and a pattern emerges — not of grand gestures, but of consistency. Year after year, tour after tour, Desert Cubs returns to Sri Lanka not just as cricketers, but as neighbours. As people who remember where they came from. As a community that believes the greatest victory is not a championship trophy but a child who gets to dream bigger because of you.

They have visited orphanages. They have sponsored schools. They have brought cricket legends to UAE grounds for charity matches. They have carried books and stationeries in their bags through customs — because the education of a child in rural Sri Lanka matters to people living in Sharjah and Dubai.

In the words of Polonnowita himself: "Desert Cubs was formed in 2007. Today, Desert Cubs Cricket Academy is the largest cricket academy in the Gulf region." But the number of students trained, the titles won, the national players produced — none of that, means as much as the faces of those girls in Kurunegala who look forward to the desert cubs cricketers coming to visit them.

This journey is far from over. As Desert Cubs continues to grow — with plans for more tours, more partnerships, more giving — the commitment to Sri Lanka's communities remains at the core of everything the academy does. Because it was never really about cricket. It was always about people.