The new Sri Lanka Cricket executive committee headed by Upali Dharmadasa last week decided to do away with Sri Lanka’s foremost first class cricket tournament – the 4-day Provincial Cricket Tournament which was scheduled to be played next month.
It was only last November that the Interim Committee headed by Upali Dharmadasa himself approved a plan mooted by the then SLC Cricket Committee, which was headed by none other than Michael Tissera, to make the Provincial Tournament the top most tournament in Sri Lanka.
This was a prudent attempt made by that committee to address the ever widening gap between Sri Lankas International Cricketing needs and its domestic structure.
The proposal at that time suggested clustering the clubs of a region together to form one of seven provincial sides. The teams would be made up of the best players from each club within the region, and compete with other provinces on a more regular basis.
When the paper was being put together, the interim committee had been assured that they would be allowed to continue till just beyond the ICC World Twenty20 in September 2012, giving them at least 15 months to implement a new first-class structure in Sri Lanka.
However there was much opposition to this move by the club system of Sri Lanka who suspected that the Provincial Tournament would ultimately swallow the existing local cricket structure and pave the way for a new cricket culture in the island.
The Provincial Cricket Tournament was played in the island even during the past, but it was not structured in a proper manner. However former Sri Lanka opening batsman Sidath Wettimuny who pioneered the provincial system in Sri Lanka derived a new Provincial Cricket system which would sandwich the gap between our international cricketing needs and the local club cricket system, while also taking the game to the outstations.
However last week SLC President Upali Dharmadasa in a letter defending the changes that they have effected in the international cricket structure mooted a letter to the press and he summed that up by saying, “We are grateful to the government and the Honorable Minister of Sports for helping Sri Lanka Cricket through stormy waters. We assure you the current crisis as defined by some, is only temporary, financially we will be stable shortly.
We have a host of youngsters with excellent skill level, for the future, we will make our objective of reaching cricketing excellence a reality, we request all of you to rally round us and support the game by encouraging us to guide Sri Lanka cricket to greater heights.”
Sri Lanka Cricket Tournament Committee Chairman, Roshan Iddamalgoda was not available for comment when the Sunday Times attempted to contact him regarding this matter. |
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