Under 13 cricket an important event

Chris DHAMBARAGE

Colombo District Parliamentarian and former President Sri Lanka Cricket Thilanga Sumathipala stated that junior cricket is the very beginning for an exciting path to being a future national player.

The Managing Director of Masscom made these observations during the launching ceremony of the Bank of Ceylon 'Ran Kekulu' Trophy Little 13 inter school cricket tournament at the Sumathi Court in Bambalapitiya on Tuesday.

He said that the Under 13 tournament is an important event in the Sri Lanka Schools Cricket calendar as it is an introduction to the world class game in hard ball.

The tournament sponsored by Bank of Ceylon for the third successive year also creates an opening for some of the promising junior cricketers to try out their skills as a source of new talent for the national pool.

The junior cricketers will be backed up by a series of coaching camps in each province with the participation of national players.

Sumathipala added that the tournament has gathered a great amount of interest among the players in the last few years and as a result the total number of team's have increased to over 600 teams this year.

But he believed that the Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association has the capability to face the challenges and to conduct this tournament successfully as it was with the Under 15 and Under 17 tournaments which were completed recently.

Sumathipala added that the schools cricket structure in Sri Lanka is one of the biggest tournaments in World cricket and hope that this year's event will be another huge success with the participation of some of the schools from the North and the Eastern Provinces.

He predicted that next year the number of teams could even increase to 700 and as a result the Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association will be compelled to introduce a division four segment for the new teams competing. Presently the tournament will be conducted in three divisions and all matches will be completed by November 10. The division one tournament will comprise of 108 schools and the number of matches will be 273.

Sumathipala recalled that during the early days of his playing career there were only 16 teams participating in the Under 13 tournament but now it has increased to 600 teams. He said that this is a great opportunity for the youngsters to prove themselves and force into their provincial team and to the national team.

Meanwhile a total of 136 schools will be vying for honours in the Division Two tournament which will have a total of 311 matches on the card. The Division Three tournament of course has not yet finalized but already over 350 teams have confirmed their participation.

The inter school tournament will be followed by the Inter Provincial tournament with 30 over matches to be worked off during the event. The six provinces competing are Western, Central, Sabaragamuwa/Uva, North Central, Southern and North Western.