'Gamata Cricket' has yielded results, says SLC Interim Chief

S.M. Jiffrey ABDEEN-Kandy Sports Correspondent

Cricketers from the rural areas are highly talented but with Less opportunities and President Mahinda Rajapaksa identified this in his vision 'Mahinda Chinthanaya' and envisaged a 'Gamata Cricket' program to look for the hidden talents of the school cricketers which was launched in the year 2008 and this yielded results", said the President of Sri Lanka Cricket Interim Committee (IC) and former National Cricket Captain and spin wizard D. Somachandra de Silva.

He made these observations at a ceremony held at Trinity College Auditorium in Kandy for the distribution of cricket balls to schools playing in the under 19 cricket tournament in the districts of Kandy, Matale, Nuwara Eliya and Kegalle by SLC through Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association.

Chairman D.S. De Silva said that just looking for talent alone will not do and he in his capacity as the Presidential Advisor on school cricket went to all parts of the island and had meetings with the school principals, cricket coaches and masters-in-charge and found that most of the schools were badly in need of cricket equipment and some were on the verge of giving-up the game due to high cost of cricket gear and also the infrastructure needed to be developed.

He advised President Mahinda Rajapaksa on this issue and the President Mahinda Rajapaksa ordered that the required cricket equipment be ordered duty free and the advantage was two fold - first it reduced cost and the money saved was utilised to purchase cricket materials to reach a larger area. Over 400 schools benefitted from this program which was the first one to be launched of this magnitude.

All schools - whether big or small were each provided two bags of cricket equipment worth around Rs. six lakhs and this included cricket bats, cricket balls, batting gloves, wicket keeping gloves, helmets, pads, etc. This infused a new life into cricket in schools. The result was more matches and better competitions.

He said this is not all schools having venues were presented with coir mattings and practice wickets both astro turf and cencrete pitches complete with wire nettings were provided to improve the individual skills of the cricketers. These are the basic requirements for the development of cricket at grass roots level.

One must not forget the vision of President Mahinda Rajapaksa for the improvement and development of cricket in schools especially in the rural areas.

Somachandra de Silva said that at that time it was felt that outstation cricketers were at the receiving of certain unfairness as selections were done by selectors from Colombo. This was done away with and five regional selectors were appointed for the outstations. How can a selector from Colombo decide on the selections of the cricketers from Kandy. This will further encourage the young cricketers.

This is not all we are also planning to provide practice turf wickets and also improve the conditions of the playing fields.

Plans are also afoot to construct grounds in the rural areas and the work on three of them have already begun.

He said that last year we had 320 school, playing cricket and this has now increased to 400. More Sangakkaras Muralitharans, Jayasuriyas and Upul Chandanas should emerge in the future thanks to the vision of President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the program 'Gamata Cricket'.

M.T.A. Rauff General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association (SLSCA) said that this Association has done good work in the past and tremendous improvement has been witnessed since last year through efforts made by the Chairman of SLC IC D.S. De Silva.

In 1996 120 schools were playing cricket and a new dimension to the game was given after Sri Lanka won the Willis World Cup in 1996 and now we are bursting our seams with over 400 schools playing cricket. As the Chairman of the IC he is helping the SLSCA in many ways to develop cricket.

He said that the cricket balls presented today were found lying in the stores of SLC by De Silva. He felt that the best way of utilising them were to present them to schools playing in the current under 19 cricket tournament. Along with this schools were also presented with chemically treated score sheets and team cards.

He said that the provision of facilities to schools saw a number of cricketers from the outstations emerging. The under 19 team made a triumphant tour of Australia winning the series 3-2 and they are now in South Africa playing in a Tri-Nation cricket tournament. They also participated in a similar tournament in Sri Lanka last month before they take wings to New Zealand for the Under 19 World Cup.

Also present at this ceremony were Nihal Fernando, Kapila Jayalath (Treasurer SLSCA), Brigadier Udaya Ariyaratne (Principal Trinity College) and Provincial Coach Sunil Fernando.