Sri Lankan Cricket fans set to catch Cricket World Cup fever

National Cricket Council (ICC) will host a series of exciting ground level activations in a bid to capture the spirit of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, among cricket fans in Sri Lanka.

The first of these activities is the 'Voice for Stumpy' on-air promotion already underway. This promotion will enable Sri Lankan cricket fans to get into World Cup mode and familiarize themselves with Stumpy, the Official ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 Mascot.

The 'Voice for Stumpy' promotion will also help create excitement for this world class event and inject fun in the process. During the promotion, on a daily basis, the promotion will reveal a particular 'cricket' related term and encourage the public to call in and voice that term as Stumpy which would, in effect, give Stump a voice. In addition to daily prizes, the lucky winner of the grand prize will walk away with a pair of tickets to a Quarter-Final Game of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011.

There will also be the 'ICC Mini Cricket World Cup,' a six-a-side softball cricket tournament open to individual teams over the age of 18. The 'ICC Mini Cricket World Cup' will be conducted across three venues commencing on the 4 December in Hambantota, in Kandy on the 11 December and the Colombo leg will be on the 18 December.

Two winners from each regional playoff will travel to Colombo to face each other on the 8th January with the final winner claiming the prize of playing against six members of the original 1996 World Cup winning Sri Lankan cricket team. The matches will be worked off with the support of respective Provincial and District Cricket Associations and supervised by a team of professional umpires.

In order to raise the temperature and ensure that all Sri Lankan cricket fans grasp World Cup fever, the 23 December 2010 will witness the kick off of the World Cup Glory Express, a 45 day island-wide promotional tour to mobilize fan support for the ICC 2011 World Cup and raise tournament awareness. The World Cup Glory Express, a vibrantly decorated mobile float complete with a giant cricket ball, will begin its journey in Colombo and over the period of 45 days, with the aim of covering the length and breadth of Sri Lanka.

At every stop along its journey the World Cup Glory Express float, stocked with 'papare' bands, will encourage cricket fans to pledge their support for the tournament by signing their wishes upon the larger than life cricket ball.

Following its nationwide travels, the World Cup Glory Express wishes will be displayed at the official ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 venues.