The Red Bull Campus Cricket Tournament is a world renowned competition which gives the students of Universities from all around the world a platform to showcase their skills and talents.
Last couple of years the Red Bull Campus Cricket finals were held in Sri Lanka with the participation of 6 cricketing nations. Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, Pakistan and hosts Sri Lanka participated in the last year’s tournament.
DAV College Chandigarh became Red Bull Campus Cricket World Final champions, beating University of Karachi by 49 runs in the final. Sri Lanka’s representative, University of Moratuwa lost to their Indian counterparts DAV College in a thrilling semi final.
This year, the Red Bull Campus Cricket finals will be played in England and the Sri Lankan qualifying competition is scheduled to start on the 12th of February with the final will be played on the 27th of February 2014.
The sponsors were thrown into a major setback as the Local Universities who possess the most experienced campus teams in Sri Lanka pulled out of the event. Previous edition winners University of Moratuwa will not play the tournament while University of Colombo, University of Peradeniya, University of Sri Jayawardenapura and all the other national universities have withdrawn their participation due to a disagreement between the main sponsors Red Bull and the Sri Lanka University Sports Association.
Speaking to www.thepapare.com, Secretary of SLUSA Mr. R.J Wellassa pointed out that the sponsor is not helping the local universities especially from the suburbs and outstations who experience logistical issues. They also stated that the Universites do not have this event in their budget and are unable to facilitate such. “Red Bull wants us to spend for the accommodation, travelling & food but we are not entitled to spend for this tournament.’’
Brendon Kuruppu, Tournament Director – Red Bull Campus Cricket 2014 issuing a statement mentioned the non-participation of local universities in the tournament. “Red Bull has extended an invitation to all universities in Sri Lanka and like all other inter-university tournaments, it is with Sri Lanka University Sports Association’s (SLUSA) approval, a public university is allowed to participate. For reasons provided by SLUSA and respected by Red Bull, we accept that there is a possibility that we may see the nonparticipation of public university teams in this year’s tournament. “
Ten teams will participate in Red Bull Campus Cricket tournament 2014 and the confirmed participating teams are American National College (ANC), Business Management School (BMS) , National Institute of Business Management (NIBM) , Asia Pacific Institute of Information Technology (APIIT) , Royal Institute Colombo, General Sir John Kothalawala Defense University, Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT), Informatics Institute of Technology (IIT) , The South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM) and International College of Business and Technology.
