The once elapsed Under-19 Inter-Provincial cricket tournament organised and conducted by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is scheduled to kick off next Tuesday at four venues. However experts of schools cricket question the reason behind conducting a competition hile the first XI season has not even reached halfway. The tournament will include 10 sides covering the [...]

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The Sundaytimes Sri Lanka

Under 19 Provincial tournament to pick squad for Bangladesh clash

By Naushad Amit
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The once elapsed Under-19 Inter-Provincial cricket tournament organised and conducted by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is scheduled to

Sri Lanka Cricket selctors will begin the process of picking new players for its Under-19 national squad from this week.

kick off next Tuesday at four venues. However experts of schools cricket question the reason behind conducting a competition hile the first XI season has not even reached halfway.

The tournament will include 10 sides covering the entire whole island yet the Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association affirms that they have come to a conclusion not to let first XI cricketers who are facing the G.C.E. Ordinary Level examination take part in this competition.

Many from the schools cricket circuit believe that SLC are conducting this tournament during an inappropriate period where very little purpose is served of its intentions.

However Sri Lanka Under-19 coach, Naveed Nawaz had a justification on the tournament being conducted within seven days, during the latter week of December, from 18 to 24. He stated the tournament mainly focuses on picking potential players to form a Sri Lanka Under-19 pool of 30 players.

“The purpose of conducting this tournament is to pick an initial squad to prepare for the upcoming tour to Bangladesh in April 2013. The tour will include three Youth Tests and three Youth ODIs. It’s going to be a tough tour on any side since Bangladesh is a challenging side at this level. To build up a strong outfit this will be the ideal time, since there are four months for preparations,” Nawaz explained.

Despite the fact that the tournament is being handled by SLC from the structural and technical aspects, SLSCA official Dilshan de Silva confirmed that they have requested all schools to refrain students, who will sit for the G.C.E. O/L exams, from taking part in the tournament. According to reports selectors have been deployed at provincial level under supervision of the national selection panel headed by Asantha de Mel to pick players to represent each provincial team.

“The SLC conducted trial matches before picking players to represent each teams. This is usually a tournament that should be played annually but last year we could not conduct the competition as it clashed with the ICC Youth World Cup,” Chandima Mapatuna of the SLC tournament committee said.

The SLC Under-19 Inter-Provincial cricket tournament will feature 10 teams where five each are grouped into two. Western North Outer, Western South Outer, Central, Eastern and Western North provinces will play in Group A while Group B includes North Central, Uva, Southern, Western South and Northern provinces. Group A matches will be played at Surrey Village in Maggona and BOI ground in Katunayake. Rangiri Damdulla and Welagedara stadiums will host the Group B matches. However the venue of the final which is scheduled for December 24 has not been decided.




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