Prestige Automobile powers MCA 'C' Division tournament

Anuradha ABEYSEKERA

The Mercantile Cricket Association (MCA) will conduct their 'C' division 50-over League Tournament for BMW-Hyundai Cup from today till February 11 in Colombo.

The league stage will commence this weekend (today and tomorrow) with six matches on the card.

The tournament is conducted in a single group league format, in two stages comprising 24 matches. Altogether seven teams with five newcomers to the tournament will battle it out for the supremacy.

Participation of banks became prominent in the tournament as four out of five new teams are from banks. Commercial Bank 'A', Union Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Merchant Credit of SL and Softlogic Holdings have entered the tournament this year while HSBC and DIMO being the two past participants.

There are 21 league matches have been scheduled to play in P. Sara Oval, FTZ-Katunayake, Moratuwa Stadium, Thurstan College and St. Benedict's College grounds spanned in and around Colombo till January 29.

After the completion of the first stage in round-robin format, the top four teams in the points table will advance to the semi finals on February 5. The final will be played on February 11 at the Moratuwa Stadium.

Apart from the main trophy, four special awards, best batsman, bowler and man of the series awards based on the league stage performances along with the man of the final award will be on offer.

MCA President Mahesh Wijewardene thanked the main sponsor Prestige Automobile (Pvt) Ltd. for their generous support and said MCA has laid a platform for many a school cricketers to continue the sport after leaving the school by conducting club tournaments as the National team has not been able to absorb the entire school leaving cricketers to it.

The Prestige Automobile Business Development general manager Ranjith Jayawardene said that they are proud to sponsor cricket as they consider it as fulfilling a National interest.

Prestige Automobil Senior Sales Manager Pradeep Ramanathan and Hyundai Head of Sales Dharshana Masinghe were also present on behalf of the sponsors while MCA Vice President Ashley Rathnayake and MCA Tournament Committee Chairman Rohana Dissanayake were i the head table.