Junior Netball Nationals begin at Kurunegala today

BY CHRIS Dhambarage

THE Junior National Netball championships organised and conducted by the Netball Federation of Sri Lanka and sponsored by National Savings Bank will be worked off today and tomorrow at the Maligapitiya grounds and Welagedera Stadium in Kurunegala.

All affiliated member associations of the Netball Federation of Sri Lanka are permitted to field a combined team thus widening the opportunity for young talented players to display their netball prowess.

The youth of today will be the players the Netball Federation of Sri Lanka hope to nurture and harness to achieve the mission of reaching the top ten in the world by 2011.

Hence this tournament is of great importance as it could identify talent for development through the development programmes structured to operate through district level.

The Netball Federation of Sri Lanka will pick the young talented players from this tournament and will be included in their respective district development pools.

The opening ceremony of the tournament will be held today at the Maligapitiya grounds at 9.00 a.m under the patronage of Sripathy Sooriyaarachchi Deputy Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports and Athula Wijesinghe Chief Minister for North Western Province.

This years tournament has attracted a total of 25 teams and they have been drawn into four different groups.

Defending champions Sri Lanka Schools, State Services, Kurunegala, Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Playground and Killinochchi are included in group 'A'. Colombo, Matara, Jaffna, Batticaloa, Vavuniya and Badulla will battle it out in group 'B'.

The teams vying for honours in group 'C' are Galle, Mercantile, Western Province, Nuwara Eliya, Kandy and Kegalle while the last years runners up Kalutara, Mannar, Puttalam, Ratnapura, Matale and Gampaha will compete in group 'D'.

In the quarter finals the winner of group 'A' will play against the runners up of group 'D', winners of group 'C' will meet the runners up of group 'B', the winners of group 'B' will clash with the runners up of group 'C' and the winners of group 'D' will take on the runners up of group 'A'.

The semi finals and the final will be played tomorrow at the Welagedera Stadium under the patronage of Jayaratne Herath Deputy Minister of Public Security Law and Order. The guest of honour will be Niranjan Wickremasinghe Minister of Sports North Western Province.

The champions will receive the National Savings Bank challenge trophy. In addition special awards will be presented to the best centre courst player, best shooter, best defensive player and the Youth Netball Queen will receive the NSB Sthree challenge trophy.