Sri Lanka Schools Netball Association in collaboration with Nestle Lanka PLC, sets forth to sponsor the Sri Lanka Schools Netball Championship for the MILO Trophy 2014, for the 23rd consecutive year. The event which kicked off on May 16th will be played at venues island wide.
The first edition of the tournament will take place in 15 centers with more than 1100 teams from 760 schools that will battle under two divisions. The tournament will be conducted in under-13, under-14, under 16 & under-18 categories. There will be two divisions in all age groups with the exception of under-13 which will see six teams from each center being eligible for the finals.
Last Thursday at a press conference, Mrs. Sandamali Aviruppola, the head of Sri Lanka Schools Netball Association stated that, “schools with below 1000 students will take part in Division B”. The Principle of Visakha Vidyalaya, Colombo declared that, “every team that participates in the competition should have a fair chance of winning it. The schools which have got less than 1000 students will participate in Division B while the other schools will battle in Division A”.
Players born in 2002 & 2003 will take part in under-13 group, while players born in 2001 will see under-14 eligibility. Age group of under-16 will comprise of students born in 1999 & 2000 and the most senior age group of under-18 will include players born in 1997 & 1998.
The tournament committee is expecting a more competitive tournament this year since the increased number of participants from last year’s 980 to 1100.
Previous year’s tournament witnessed Holy Family Convent, Kurunegala emerging the Champions of under-14 & under-16 while retaining third in the under-18 category. Sri Siddhartha Vidyalaya, Eppawala & Gothami Balika Vidyalaya were the runners-up in the categories of under-14 & under-16 respectively. Mahaketiya MV, Wariyapola won the under-16 B Division title whilst Sangaraja Vidyalaya, Keragala won the championship of under-14.
The 15 match centers are;
Ampara May 16th & 17th
Kandy May 24th & 25th
Matale May 27th
Anuradhapura May 28th & 29th
Kurunegala May 28th & 29th
Jaffna May 29th
Kalutara May 30th
Homagama May 31st & June 1st
Ratnapura June 1st
Puttalam June 2nd
Galle June 2nd
Badulla June 2nd & 3rd
Matara June 3rd
Gampaha June 7th & 8th
Colombo June 28th & 29th
