The SLSCA-SLC agreement flouted
Are the much publicised school cricket reforms agreement between the Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association (SLSCA) and Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) going to be still born.
This is still the third week the 2012/13 season is in progress and the flouting of the agreement has already taken place.
Sri Lanka School cricket which was one of the best in the world at one juncture with a small number of schools participating grew in size in the past two decades or so, but deteriorated in quality alarmingly. The standards went so low, at present the Sri Lanka Under-19 team could not hold their own against a side from Bangladesh in the same age group. At the same time the input from schools directly into the national grid which was a regular feature in the past has almost dried out.
This school’s division match between Maris Stella Negombo and Holy Cross began on Thursday in contrary to the SLC-SLCA understanding that all schools matched should be played during the weekend. - Pic by Amila Gamage
After studying the local school cricket patterns for over a year, a very influential set of SLC officials met a group of SLSCA officials in a bid to discuss the modalities of how to revamp the existing Junior Cricket system in the island.
They agreed upon to have changes from the Under-13 level to the Under-19 level that read: In another major change, the Under 13 tournament will be played provincially. No school will be allowed to play matches outside their provinces at this level. The Under 15 and Under 17 matches will be Limited Over matches sans the power plays. The tournament will be conducted between May 20 and August 20.
At the completion of the inter-school tournament, the SLC will take charge of the lads and conduct the District and Provincial Tournaments.
SLC officials will select the Under 15 and Under 17 schoolboys who will be slotted into the district and provincial tournaments. The District Under 15 tournament will be a One-Day affair while the Provincial Tournament will be played for two days.
The Under 17 District tournament will be played for two days while the Provincial Tournament will be played for the duration of three days.
The Under 19 tournament will begin during the normal September-October season and will end between April 1 and 10.
From the coming season, a school is permitted to play only 16 matches that will include their traditional, tournament and big matches.
There will be six matches played during the third term. No cricket will be allowed during the break for the GCE O’ Level examinations which runs from the latter part of November through the whole of December.
No third term matches may be postponed to the first term.
Also it is stipulated that there should be a seventy-two hour break between matches so that there will be time for respective coaches to work on the players and also the proper maintenance of wickets.
There is a change in the schools’ limited overs tournament too. The first division’s thirty-six teams will play amongst each other while the second division’s 32 teams will play each other.
The 150 division III schools will be broken into groups of 24 teams and the tournament will be conducted amongst them. Though the above was agreed upon the flouting of the agreement had already been the order of the day. Though the agreement has clearly stipulated that all matches should be played on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, there were seven inter-schools matches which began on Thursday, September 27.
Besides that the Sunday Times have also learned that several leading Colombo schools have already planned to play around twenty two matches for the season.
When inquired from the secretary of the SLSCA Dilshan de Silva about the change of the starting day he said, “There are difficulties in starting all the games on Friday as some of the schools do not have their own grounds”, but when pointed out that Ananda College which has its own ground beginning their match against Richmond College Galle on Thursday the reply was that they may be having their own practical problems like the hiring out of the ground during the weekend. When asked about the stipulated sixteen matches the reply of the SLSCA secretary was: “We have requested the schools to send us their sixteen matches to reach us by October 20, 2012. Thereafter we will only go by the matches forwarded to us. We will not take into account any other matches a school plays. However we are not in a position to stop them playing more matches.
However he also admitted that they were aware about some schools planning to play more then the stipulated number of matches.
When asked the secretary of SLC Nishantha Ranatunga about this situation and the commitments that they promised the SLSCA in return he said, “We must ascertain the situation very carefully. We must meet the schools authorities once again and discuss as how we should go ahead at this juncture. However as the schools arena comes under the Ministry of Education we finally must get their blessings to this move.”
The proposal between the SLSCA and SLC is yet to reach the Education Ministry according to sources. The Sunday Times spoke to Rohana Karunaratne, the Director General for Sports, for Ministry of Education who said that he totally agrees with the proposal but could not make an official commitment as parties involved have not brought up the plan to the attention of the ministry officially.
“The proposal has to be brought up to attention of the Ministry of Education. We would be willing to discuss this matter and support the cause as I also personally think that youngsters should play cricket and conduct their studies in a balanced manner. Overloading them with too many games during a season is not acceptable at all, 16 matches in a season is reasonable. Once the proposal reaches us officially, the Ministry of Education will certainly support this cause most willingly,” Karunaratne stated.
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