Mini Cricket Academy for Kandy District

S.M. Jiffrey Abdeen - Kandy sports correspondentq

CRICKET: Sri Lanka Cricket is prepared to invest a substantial amount on a Mini Cricket Academy for the overall improvement and development of cricket in the Kandy District and it is upto the Kandy District Cricket Association to locate a suitable venue which is easily accessible and apprise Sri Lanka Cricket so that the necessary follow up action could be taken said Nishantha Ranatunga, Secretary, Infrastructure Development of Sri Lanka Cricket.

He made these observations when he addressed the Committee of the Kandy District Cricket Association after distribution of cricket materials to the active affiliated cricket clubs of the Kandy District Cricket Association at a ceremony held at Hotel Devon in Kandy on Sunday evening.

Nishantha Ranatunga said that Kandy's contribution to national cricket has been great. Besides producing the world's greatest off spinner Muthiah Muralitharan, they have also produced a potential national captain and brilliant middle order batsman Kumar Sangakkara who is going great guns at present.

Then there are also cricketers of the calibre of Piyal Wijetunga, Ruwan Kalpage, Bernard Perera, Sajith Fernando and C. Kapugedera just to name a few. We would like Kandy to churn out more cricketers of this class who are good spinners and good middle order batsmen.

Nishantha Ranatunga also said there is a lot of money in cricket but performance must be there and if we do well, Sri Lanka Cricket will be rewarded with money which could be passed down for development of cricket. Chairman of the Sri Lanka Cricket Jayantha Dharmadasa is a firm believer in helping outstation cricket and he wants more players from the outstations in the national squad. Thus we will do everything to achieve this.

Nishantha Ranatunga also said that when they played school cricket in the eighties, there were very few turf wickets. There was enough land in the compound and back yards of houses and we played cricket there. But now that is not there as buildings have come up. Therefore the need for more practise nets.

The Chairman of the National Development Committee of Sri Lanka Cricket Priyantha Algama said that present administration is keen that the infrastructure in the outstations must be development and a request had been made to improve the cricket grounds at Galagedera and this will be done in due course.

Likewise the Dharmaraja grounds at Lake View will be provided with turf wickets as it has produced a fine cricketer in Chamara Kapugedera. Large sums will be allocated to develop cricket in the Kandy area.

Priyantha Algama also said that a request had bene made for Test matches in Kandy and this will be considered in conjunction with the authorities concerned.

Deva Amunugama representing Old Trinitians SC said that Kandy CC has been playing cricket for over 50 years and Kandy Youths CC for over 20 years and they are in the SLC Division one cricket tournament but they have been not affiliated to the Sri Lanka Cricket and they are only Associate Members whereas Old Trinitians SC playing in the Division 3 cricket tournament who commenced playing cricket much later are affiliate members. He urged the authorities to look into this matter.

The President of the Kandy District CA Dr. R. Mahendra said that they are thankful to Sri Lanka Cricket for providing us free cricket materials which has been now distributed to the affiliated clubs of the KDCA and he was hopeful more assistance will be forthcoming from the SLC.

Tuan Dole, Honorary Treasurer of the Kandy District CA said that the Sri Lanka Cricket must work together with the Committee of the District Cricket Association when organising Test matches. It should be a team effort.

Also gracing the occasion were Honorary Secretary of the Kandy District CA Roland Perera, Chairman- Tour Organising Committee of SLC Shibly Vilcassim, and Jeewaka Fernando - Co-ordinator to the Interim Committee of SLC.

The following clubs received cricket materials in the form of bats, batting pads, batting gloves, wicket keeping pads and gloves, and helmets - Kandy Youths CC, Kandy CC, Old Trinitians SC, Sylvestrians SC, Galagedara CC, Madawala United CC, University of Peradeniya, Prisons SC, Old Rajans SC, Old Antonians SC, Visuvious SC, Gampola CC, Saracens CC, Southerland CC, Blue Universal SC.