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| Wednesday, 4 August 2004 |
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Hutch indoor cricket World Cup in Sri Lanka by Richard Dwight It was on a note of triumph and a sense of achievement that, Dhakshitha Anthony, Chairman of the Ceylon Indoor Cricket Association (CICA) revealed, amidst a representative gathering of the media invitees and guests, at a high tech media conference last Friday at Austasia, Thalawathugoda - that the Indoor Cricket World Cup tournament will be held in October in Colombo. He was apparently a very delighted man, since it was historic, in that for the first time, the World Cup in the arena of Indoor Cricket is being held in the Asian Region, and that too in Sri Lanka. Equally pleased was Anthony, that such a major undertaking of this magnitude and nature was being actively sponsored by 'Hutchison Telecom' and this international tournament will be referred to as the "Hutch Indoor Cricket World Cup 2004". It was learnt from Anthony, that the bid to host the 5th Indoor Cricket World Cup 2004 began last September, with England being the rival contender. Sri Lanka made the right kind of impression, when the officials of the World Indoor Cricket Federation were here and, received the nod to host the World Cup over England. This certainly does speak well of the CICA, the Austasia and the country at large. The first World Cup was held in England, the last, the fourth in New Zealand and the 5th World Cup will now be held from October 8 to 16 in Sri Lanka at the Austasia International Sports Complex, Thalawathugoda. The matches will be played on 3 courts at the Austasia with 8 to 10 games gone through each day. The countries taking part are Australia, South Africa, India, England and Sri Lanka. New Zealand and UAE are likely to participate, if a problem or two concerning security, could be sorted out. Australia having won the last World Cup, are the defending champs with Sri Lanka enjoying 3rd ranking status, determined to come out on top as the host nation. There will in all be around 500 inclusive of both players and officials. The CEO of Hutchison Telecom, the sponsors Thirukumar Nadarasa said that 'Hutch' as an established international telecom operator has been sponsoring cricket in all its various forms around the world. More specifically 'Hutch' has been associated with the Indian cricket scene. Nadarasa voiced his pleasure to be a part of yet another cricketing event to be hosted in Sri Lanka. This indoor form of cricket has started to gather momentum, because it more easily fits into busy lives where its more and more difficult to allocate a full day to watch a one day match except on weekends. He felt the same discussion would also have been had when the one day format was originally introduced. The game of cricket, like many other sports, he stressed, has to continually evolve in order to remain valid, in the ever changing pace of life and lifestyle. It must be mentioned that it was 'Hutch' which sponsored the tour of New Zealand here. The Assistant General Manager Austasia Roshani Raju delivered the vote of thanks while Operations Manager, Gamini Perera, the former Royal College cricketer steered proceedings which ended with an exhibition match and a social. |
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