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by Chris Dhambarage

Sri Lanka have confirmed their participation in the fourth indoor cricket men's and women's World Cup championships which will be held from September 28 to October 7 in Wellington, New Zealand.

All matches will be worked off at the Wellington Show and Sports Centre and the other teams competing are Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, England and India. In addition Zimbabwe, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Namibia and Malaysia are also in contention to participate.

The selection committee of the Ceylon Indoor Cricket Association have picked a seventeen member squad for the men's tournament and an eighteen member squad for the women's tournament in preparation for the World Cup. The squads were selected after the completion of the Lions Mercantile tournament and the women's open league tournament worked off at the Austasia Sports Complex in Thalawathugoda recently.

The men's squad is studded with six players from the champion Favourites Garments team which won the Lions Mercantile Division One title. In addition there are four players from the East West Marketing team which emerged runners up in the same tournament. Asela Pathirana of Favourites Garments is tipped to lead the men's team once again having successfully led the country in the past home test series against India, England and Australia.

Sri Lanka emerged as a major force in indoor cricket by defeating the reigning World champions Australia in the last test series in Colombo. That defeat was incidentally the first the Australians had suffered after having gone through unbeaten during a total of 56 matches. In addition the Lankans also had a successful tour of Australia last year where they won six out of the seven matches played in Adelaide.

The Lankans made a clean sweep against the Indians and followed up with another splendid performance against England. The Sri Lanka men's and women's teams will be reduced to ten members and they will be accompanied by the officials and delegates from the Ceylon Indoor Cricket Association.

The squads: (men's): Asela Pathirana, Roshan Weerasinghe, Chrishantha Peiris, Dilshan Vitharana, Sanjeewa Jayaratne, Bumika Rasanjana (all from Favourites Garments), Nilam Jaymon, Iroshan de Silva, Chandika Sisira Kumara, Chamindu Perera, Nalaka de Silva (all from East West Marketing), Lyndon Hannibal, Thushendra Zoysa (Lanka Yalta Lions), Tharindu Mendis, Manoj Fernando (Custom AC), Parinda Kularatne, Rukshan Cassim (Suntel).

(Women's): Venessa de Silva, Hiroshi Abeysinghe, Sandamali Dolawatte, Don Indralatha, Randhika, Andrew Meeda, Lalani, Deepika (all from Colts CC), Hiruka Fernando, Gayathri Kariyawasam, Rose Fernando, Chamani Seneviratne, Thanuja Ekanayake (all from Slimline), Eshani Kaushalya, R. A. Chamali, Anusha Samanmali (all from Lanka Ladies), Chamika Bandara, Thilaka (Rajarata Ladies).

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