Future stars in action at under 23 tourney

Chris DHAMBARAGE

The future stars of Sri Lanka cricket will be seen in action when the SLC organized three day under 23 tournament gets underway in Colombo today.

A total of 14 teams divided into two groups will be vying for honours in this tournament which will conclude during the last week of September with a break of one month due to the SLC Twenty20 Premier League.

The defending champions Chilaw Marians CC are in group A along with Colts CC, SSC, Bloomfield, CCC, BRC and the newcomers Leo CC from Negombo.

In fact Leo CC will be making their first appearance in a division one competition after having emerged champions in last year's SLC Under 23 division two tournament.

Leo CC of course will not have a game this week but will be up against the reigning champions Chilaw Marians CC in their opening fixture next week in Hambanthota.

The group 'B' will comprise of last year's runners up NCC, Tamil Union, Ragama CC, Moors SC, Air Force SC, Moratuwa SC and Sebastianites CC.

The pick of the matches in the opening week will be the clash between CCC and Colts CC at Havelock Park. The Maitland Crescent Club will have a new captain in Ramith Rambukwella who had represented the team in some of the Premier League matches earlier.

The new faces in the CCC line up are S. Thomas' wicket keeper batsman Sachin Peiris, Mohamed Ijaz from D. S. Senanayake College and former St. Joseph's College captain Dinal Dhambarage.

CCC of course will badly feel the absence of their most experienced player and former Sri Lanka youth all rounder Sachith Pathirana who has shifted to Chilaw Marians CC from this season.

Colts CC will be captained by promising middle order batsman Roshen Silva and will have the services of former Sri Lanka under 19 opening bowler Chatura Peiris who will add more strength to their bowling line up. The other key match this weekend will be the fixture between the arch rivals Bloomfield and the SSC at Reid Avenue.

The two top teams from each group will qualify for the semifinals with the venues to be announced later.

Team		Captain			Coach
Chilaw Marians 	Lahiru Weragala  	Mahesh Weerasinghe
NCC		Angelo Perera		Hemantha Devappriya
SSC		Bhanuka Rajapaksa	Avishka Gunawardena
CCC		Ramith Rambukwella	Charith Senanayake
Bloomfield	Chetan de Silva		Tharanga Dhammika
Colts CC   	Roshen Silva   		Nishantha Weerasinghe
Tamil Union 	Ashan Priyanjan   	Roy Dias
Ragama CC  	Romesh Buddhika   	Dharshana Gamage
Moors SC  	Ishan Ghouse   		Ruwin Peiris
BRC		Yasitha Abeykoon	A. J. Samarasekera
Air Force SC 	Angelo Emmanuel  	Sudath Munaweera
Moratuwa SC 	Chamesh Fernando  	Sanjeeva Silva
Sebastianites SC Kanishka Boteju   	Chamath Perera
Leo CC  	Pubudu Hasanka  	Dinesh Weerasinghe
  
July 1-3: BRC v Chilaw Marians CC at Havelock Park, CCC v Colts CC at Havelock Park, Bloomfield v SSC at Reid Avenue, 
NCC v Moratuwa SC at Maitland Place, Moors SC v Ragama CC at Braybrooke Place.
July 3-5: Tamil Union v Air Force SC at P. Saravanamuttu Oval
July 6-8: NCC v Sebastianites CC at Maitland Place
July 8-10: Chilaw Marians CC v Leo CC at Hambanthota, Colts CC v BRC at Havelock Park, Moratuwa SC v Tamil Union at Moratuwa, 
Air Force SC v Ragama CC at Rifle Green
July 10-12: Bloomfield v CCC at Reid Avenue
July 15-17: Chilaw Marians CC v CCC at Hambanthota, SSC v Colts CC at Maitland Place, Bloomfield v Leo CC at Reid Avenue, 
Moors SC v Tamil Union at Braybrooke Place, Ragama CC v Sebastianites SC at Maitland Place
July 16-18: Air Force SC v NCC at Rifle Green
August 12-14: SSC v Chilaw Marians CC at Maitland Place, Colts CC v Leo CC at Havelock Park, Bloomfield v BRC at Reid Avenue, 
Moors SC v NCC at Braybrooke Place, Tamil Union v Sebastianites CC at P. Saravanamuttu Oval, Ragama CC v Moratuwa SC at Maitland Place
August 19-21: Chilaw Marians CC v Bloomfield at Hambanthota, SSC v CCC at Maitland Place, BRC v Leo CC at Havelock Park, 
Air Force SC v Moors SC at Rifle Green, Moratuwa SC v Sebastianites CC at Moratuwa, NCC v Ragama CC at Maitland Place
August 26-28: Colts CC v Chilaw Marians CC at Havelock Park, BRC v SSC at Havelock Park, Leo CC v CCC at Katunayake, 
NCC v Tamil Union at Maitland Place, Moors SC v Moratuwa SC at Braybrooke Place, Sebastianites CC v Air Force SC at Panadura
September 2-4: Bloomfield v Colts CC at Reid Avenue, SSC v Leo CC at Maitland Place, BRC v CCC at Havelock Park, 
Tamil Union v Ragama CC at P. Saravanamuttu Oval, Moors SC v Sebastianites CC at Braybrooke Place, Moratuwa SC v Air Force SC at Moratuwa
September 16-18: semifinal matches
September 23-25: Final