The Singer all island schools under 19 cricket tournament 2015/16 was officially launched at a media conference held at Sri Lanka Cricket headquarters on Tuesday evening.
Singer Sri Lanka PLC, a renowned name in the field of sports in Sri Lanka has come forward for the third consecutive year to sponsor the premier under 19 cricket tournament, which will be organized by Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association together with Sri Lanka Cricket.
The revamped schools cricket league will see a total of 222 teams fight it out in three divisions with 4400 players to be involved.
Speaking at the press conference, Singer Sri Lanka PLC, Director – Sales, Kumar Samarasinghe shared his views, “Developing school cricket in Sri Lanka is our main objective and we do not expect any financial benefits by sponsoring this tournament, which is also for the 3rd consecutive year. I give my sincere gratitude to SLC and SLSCA for their guidance and cooperation that lead this whole project. “
The President of Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association, Kithsiri Liyanagamage made his remarks regarding the upcoming tournament, “I really appreciate the support given to us by Singer Sri Lanka and they have driven to improve the standards of our schools cricket system. Our biggest objective is to spread the game to the grass-root level and do our best to help the budding cricketers.”
Sri Lanka Cricket Vice-President Kushil Gunasekara addressed the media, “Sri Lanka schools cricket system is the best in the world and there is no doubt about that but unfortunately we have not been able to win the ICC U19 World Cup in the past. Our main target is to win the Youth World Cup in 2016 or in 2018. Through our annual budget, we have assigned 100 million rupees to develop school cricket and we must unearth talent from outstation schools in order to succeed in the future.”
The winner’s trophy of the Singer schools U19 cricket tournament was unveiled at the ceremony while Singer Sri Lanka PLC, CEO – Asoka Peiris handing over the sponsorship cheque to the SLSCA officials.
“As you all know, we have made certain changes to the tournament structure. The league tournament is scheduled to start in September and all 8 matches in each group is to be played on or before 10th February, 2016. For the first-time in the history, three-day matches will also be played from the semi-finals stage. This will help to nurture Test players in the future. ‘Grays’ balls will be used in all matches and we have advised all division one schools to play their matches in ‘Turf’ matches at all possible times.” Dilshan De Silva, Secretary of Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association explained the structure of the tournament.
The present schoolboy cricketer of the year and Sri Lanka under 19 skipper from Richmond College, Charith Asalanka expressed his views to the media, “Last season we played good cricket and achieved most of our targets but this year we want to do well and win the tournament.”
“School cricket helped me gain my place in the under 19 national team. Even though I will miss most of the season due to national commitments, I hope my alma mater be victorious this year.” Sri Lanka youth batting star from St. Sebastian’s College, Moratuwa, Avishka Fernando said.
D.S. Senanayake College captain, Kavin Bandara was confident in sharing his thoughts, “Our team is well-prepared to do well this year. We have a young team and I am confident that D. S Senanayake can win this coveted trophy. I sincerely thank all media personnel including batsman.com & ThePapare.com for their unending support.”
“Our team is a hard-working lot and our only aim is to be the champions.” Canny left-arm spinner Thilan Nimesha from Prince of Wales College said.
Isipathana College cricket captain Salinda Ushan positively spoke about his team, “Our school has four Sri Lanka youth players, which is the highest from the whole island. The under 17 team recently ended as the runner-up and I am certain that we have a champion team to go all the way in this tournament.”
Finally, Thurstan College skipper Charana Nanayakkara and a member of last season’s runner-up team shared his thoughts, “We have a good balanced team and I believe we can the championship. “
