Olcott Memorial cricket from December 10 to 12

Yasarartne Gamage

The twelfth consecutive Col Henry Steele Olcott Memorial Limited Over cricket tournament of the eight leading Buddhist schools will take place on December 10,11 and 12 at the Galle International Cricket Stadium.

This was revealed at a press briefing at Bloomfield Cricket Club, Reid Avenue last Thursday. This year’s tournament arrangements are in the hands of the Old Mahindians’ Sports Club headed by tournament committee president Kumara Samarasinghe and the tourney is well supported by Col. H S Olcott Memorial Sports Foundation. Ananda, Dharmaraja, Dharmasoka, Dharmapala, Mahinda, Maliyadewa, Nalanda and Rahula are to compete in this three-day six-a-side knock-out tourney. Ananda College grabbed the trophy last year. The first day’s matches are between schoolboys while the second and third day have been scheduled for the old boys.

Awards for the best batsman, fielder, bowler , man of the series and man of the finals is a unique feature in this year’s encounter. In the over 40 category matches three players (Between 35 and 40 years) are allowed to play in order to enhance the competitiveness of the tourney. National and divisional level players are not allowed to play in order to have a level playing field (teams of equal strength).

This years matches have been reduced to 12 overs per innings on the second day and the finals will be held on December 12. The chief guests will be the Chairman and Director General of the Vocational Training Institute of Sri Lanka Dr Chittralal Ambawatte who was a great player at Mahinda and the well-known former Sri Lankan Cricketer Jayananda Warnaweera.