St. Peter’s College, Bambalapitiya and St. Sebastian’s College, Moratuwa have been declared joint champions of the Singer Schools’ Under 19 Division 1 League Tournament 2015/16.
The inefficiency and the unprofessionalism of the Sri Lanka Schools’ Cricket Association (SLSCA) were the main reasons for this much-anticipated three-day final to be called-off without a ball being bowled, resulting in one of the longest-running seasons in the history of Sri Lanka Schools’ Cricket finally coming to an end in an unfortunate manner.
According to the SLSCA year calendar, all U19 tournaments (League, Limited-Overs and T20) were to be completed before the Sinhala and Tamil New Year celebrations in April but with the new knock-out structure in place from this year, the League tournament was dragged on due to the ‘March Madness’ Big Matches and unwarranted inquiries.
The SLSCA officials conducted the Schools’ T20 Tournament and Limited-Overs Tournament before the Sinhala and Tamil New Year but failed to finish off the League Tournament on time.
St. Peter’s College, led by off-spinning all-rounder Vinu Mohotty, won the U19 Schools’ T20 Tournament beating St. Aloysius’ College, Galle in the final played on the 8thof April while St. Sebastian’s College, captained by top-order batsman Avishka Fernando, defeated Trinity College, Kandy in the final played on the 1st of April to win the U19 Schools’ Limited-Overs Championship.
One of the quarter-finals of the League tournament ended in a scuffle between the players and after a pointless inquiry, the officials arranged a rematch in the latter part of March, a fixture which was eventually called-off as one of the teams did not turn up.
The first three-day semi-final between St. Peter’s College and Isipathana College was played on March 16th, 17th and 18th at the Thurstan College grounds; a game which went down to the wire, giving the Petes a thrilling victory.
With the SLC Super 19 Provincial Tournament 2016 going strong in April/May, the second semi-final between St. Sebastian’s College and S. Thomas’ College, which the former won on first-innings, was played on April 27th, 28th and 29th at P. Sara Oval, between two provincial matches, meaning that players representing provincial teams had no real recovery time between games.
The final was eventually scheduled to be played on the 17th, 18th and 19th of May but due to torrential rains, the match was once again postponed to 26th, 27th and 28th of May but the two schools have come to a mutual agreement to end this SLSCA madness of postponements and finish off the season as joint champions.
“The grounds are not in proper conditions to play a final due to rain, the teams are also not in a position as they could not do any training due to bad weather conditions, so we decided to declare St. Peter’s College and St. Sebastian’s College as joint-champions.” Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association U19 Tournament Secretary Kamal Indrajith told ThePapare.com.
It’s high time that the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) administrators led by President, Thilanga Sumathipala look into this nuisance created by SLSCA officials in conducting this all-important schools’ cricket tournament.
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