Coca-Cola cricket pathway camp in Galle full of fizz

Richard DWIGHT

Undoubtedly, a step in the right direction for the future well being of Sri Lanka cricket, was the coming together of Coca-Cola Beverages Sri Lanka Ltd., and the Aravinda de Silva Cricket Foundation.

This well meaning partnership with a farsighted vision for the progress and betterment of cricket in the years ahead, gave rise to ‘Coca-Cola Cricket Pathway Camps’

 - training initiative designed to promote cricket at grass-roots level, in collaboration with the Aravinda de Silva Cricket Foundation.

This innovative set up came to be, with the twin objectives of promoting cricket in the rural and regional areas and to discover untapped cricketing talent in the country. This project made up of a series of three - day training camps organised across Sri Lanka was first launched in Dambulla, then in Colombo and thereafter in Kandy.

During the camp 7 young promising players were selected from each camp based on their talent, technique and potential. And so to further groom the selected players, each one of them will be exposed to advanced training in cricketing skills and techniques at the national level. Following the camp, the 7 selected players from each camp will also be supported with a scholarship for further training, while their progress will be tracked by the Sri Lanka Cricket Board for national pool placement. The fourth in the series of training camps, was launched last Saturday at the Galle International Cricket Stadium.

There were the usual trimmings and trappings of an opening ceremony, with the lighting of the traditional lamp, amidst a gathering of parents, trainee students, coaches and officials of the organising committee. No sooner the welcome address was made by, Harshana de Silva, video presentations were shown of national cricketers, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara and Upul Tharanga commending this far reaching entire project.

The legendary, Aravinda de Silva, on seeing the parents and students said that he was reminded of his father taking him as a small lad to be coached and giving me all the facilities and, this is why I too want to help these youngsters. He explained those cricketers between the age of 15-17, who have done well for their schools and in the domestic tournaments - have been picked for training from which 7 will be selected for a super camp. Aravinda, expressed the hope that the parents will rise to the occasion and thanked the secretary, Galle C.A. Jayananda Warnaweera and coach Stan Nell for their support.

The now concluded Galle camp the fourth in the series, saw the participation of over 70 students ranging from 15-17 years, from schools across the Galle district during the three day programme, the participating students were put through an extensive and specially planned training programme, under the supervision of cricketing legend Aravinda de Silva. The camp was also supervised by leading Sri Lanka Cricket National, Provincial and District coaches.

In addition, the camp was also supervised by former Sri Lanka A Team coach Stan Nell who aided the efforts to identify these ‘Coke Superstars’.