Royal College took a giant step yesterday in the Sri Lankan Water Polo Arena when they introduced a franchise based Water Polo league, the first ever event of that caliber in Sri Lanka.
The event is organized by the Royal College Union Aquatic Club where 5 teams will play each other on a league basis for the championship. Each team will consists of 5 Under19 players, 2 under15 players and 2 old boys.
Shehan Dassanayake will lead Dialog Thunder, Shan Lakshitha will lead the Mobitel Seals, Musharraf Uwais will lead Swastha Knights, Chethana Munasinghe will lead Sarasavi Hurricanes and Yahan Samarajeewa will lead SLIIT Sharks.
While addressing the gathering the Principal of Royal College stated that this is the very 1st time that an event of this nature will happen in Sri Lanka and he further stated that both the players from Royal College and future players in other schools will benefit from this event.
The 2 day tournament will be held on the 30th & 31st at the Royal College Swimming Pool and the winners will receive a cash prize of Rs. 30,000 in addition to the trophy. The runner up team will receive a plaque and Rs. 15,000. The project money will be used to develop Royal College at Water Polo.
This event is also created in a way to make this league a more interesting. The game will be played similar to tennis game format.
The Preliminary matches will consist of 3 sets of 7 goals.
- A set will end when the goal aggregate reaches 7 goals.
- The 1st team to score 4 goals will win a set.
- 30 secs shot clock
- A set will have a time limit of 8 mins per set.
- In a situation where either team doesn’t score 4 goals in a set at the end of 8 mins, the set will be awarded to the team which has scored the highest goals.
- Best of 03 sets to win the game
- Toss- The winner of the toss could either select the colour of the cap or attacking side.
- A Team will have 1 strategic time out for the match. In a situation where the match extends to the 3rd Set and the scores are tied, each team could opt to take an extra time out.
- Power Play – An extra player will be allowed in the pool for 1min every set. The extra player should be a U15 player.
