The 2014 edition of the Murali Harmony Cup will take place in the Northern district for the 3rd consecutive time as colourful and competitive cricket returns to the North once again with the tournament scheduled to commence on 29th October as the organizers briefed the media on Thursday evening at Upali’s by Nawaloka.
The Murali Harmony Cup is a reconciliation cricket tournament that promotes unity, goodwill, teamwork, the spirit of fair play and service to disadvantaged rural communities in post-war Northern district. The tournament has been jointly organized by the Foundation of Goodness of which former Sri Lanka cricketer and world record-holder Muttiah Muralidaran is a founding trustee together with travel company Red Dot Tours and the Sri Lanka Army & the Ministry of Defense whose unwavering commitment to create the logistical support has been extraordinary. Muralidaran has brought himself to stand in the gap and as the player that North, East, South, West followed with so much reverence it is fitting and a story which will go down in the annals of history.
The 5-day event featuring under 19 schoolboy cricketers and under 23 women cricketers will be worked-off on five grounds across the North of Sri Lanka in the towns of Jaffna, Oddusuddan, Mankulam and Kilinochchi. The 2014 tournament has been expanded to a total of 24 teams with the participation of 360 cricketers and most of them will be from disadvantaged rural schools in Sri Lanka.
World’s highest wicket-taker in international cricket, Muttiah Muralitharan is the brainchild of this tournament and the spin king was over the moon in officially launching the tournament, “The greater number of teams participating is a testament to the success of the previous tournaments and also will foster the goals of integrating communities across the island. I am extremely thankful to the Organizing Committee for their commitment once again and our sponsors and partners without whom the tournament would not have happened. As in my playing days, there were no barriers to achieve success and this is one platform going beyond boundaries where that can be further consolidated to bring about togetherness. I wish all the participants the best and to enjoy the tournament in the spirit of the game, while hoping spectators too get to witness some memorable cricket.”
Sri Lanka cricket batting stalwarts, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardena have once again played a key role as Trustees of Foundation of Goodness in helping this year’s tournament to go ahead and they gave their opinions to www.thepapare.com regarding this one of a kind event. “I am extremely proud to be supporting the 2014 Murali Harmony Cup, which is now in its 3rd consecutive year. Having attended last year’s tournament it is uplifting to see how children from all over the island go to the northern district and have fellowship with each other through cricket. We want more and more schools to participate in the future and experience the growth in cricket in North. “Sangakkara said.
The two previous boys’ tournaments were both won by St Peter’s College, Colombo who will once again start as one of the tournament favorites having been invited to defend their crown. However, this year they will face stiff competition from the dominant under 19 all-island champions Richmond College from Galle, Ananda College from Colombo, Prince of Wales College from Moratuwa and a traditionally strong Jaffna Combined Schools.
The under 23 ladies tournament will once again feature eight teams but this year all the matches will be staged in Mankulam with a 15-over per innings format that means three matches per day. The boys’ will compete in the T20 format. A total of 40 matches will be played during the whole tournament and the finals of boys’ and ladies will be played on 2nd of October in Jaffna.
Legendary Mahela too expressed his views on this great initiative at the media briefing, “When Murali initially asked me to support the Harmony Cup that he was setting up, I was extremely happy to lend my weight and support not just the tournament but also the objectives it was aiming to achieve in fostering reconciliation and friendship between the people of Sri Lanka. We have the privilege in working with so many good sponsors and this time around they are new sponsors who are on board. They see the potential of this tournament and they believe that this is within our responsibility to develop and nurture these kids from North and East after 30-years of civil war.”
One of the products of the Murali Harmony Cup, Rishan Tudore of St. Patrick’s College, Jaffna is now based in Colombo working with Foundation of Goodness and playing club cricket shared his past playing experiences in this tournament with www.thepapare.com, “I represented the Jaffna Combined Schools team in 2012 and as a wicket-keeper batsman I performed well and was selected to the Unity Team which toured Singapore and it was indeed a pleasure to play with Colombo teams for the first time in my life through Murali Harmony Cup. “
There was a humbling feeling around the room at the media briefing as those present were clearly over-awed by the three champions Murali, Sanga and Mahela giving leadership in a sense for true peace to return through the medium closest to them – sport.
Kushil Gunasekara of the Foundation of Goodness explained with much enthusiasm that the schools from those areas amazed everyone by holding their own against champion schools like St Peter’s, Trinity etc and are expected to give a good fight this time around too. To a media question Kumar Sangakkara reiterated most passionately how hard these players from North and East play and how much they give of themselves and how seriously they take this event. He stated categorically that the cricket was of the highest standards.
Man at the microphone Chandrishan Perera summed up with a tale of his own that as in past where team members did not see any racial, religious segregation, and as in the past Sri Lanka was heading for – one team.
