Future female stars open new chapter in school cricket
View(s):Cricket’s popularity among the fairer sex needs no description, with the number of women and girls taking up the sport in Sri Lanka constantly on the rise.
Anula Vidyalaya team
A few months back it was the once ordinary Sri Lanka women cricketers who made headlines in the local press after placing themselves fifth at the recently concluded ICC Women’s World Cup held in India. This might have given the school-going lasses back home the inspiration to indulge in a male-dominated sport, as Sri Lanka hosted the first-ever cricket competition for girls under the tagline of ‘Girls’ Schools Under-19 Twenty20 Championship’ which was won by Anula Vidyalaya Nugegoda.
The competition, according to tournament commissioner Champika Weeratunga, was thought up a couple of years ago with a lot of girls’ schools from Sri Lanka showing interest but due to various reasons it did not materialise until March 2013.
Gothami BV team
Weeratunga, who is the tournament secretary for girls’ cricket at the Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association (SLSCA), explained she was glad to see the tournament finally being played with the participation of 22 teams.
Despite all of the participants being debutants at a competitive level all teams have had their own coaches and the much needed background support. Weeratunga and her support staff had many areas to consider before kick-starting the inaugural
Revata College team
competition for the schoolgirls. They also faced the additional snag of logistic as many of the teams came from outstation schools. But after severe scrutiny, the SLSCA identified the teams that were fit enough to compete at the highest level – interestingly a majority of them qualified.
“As it was the inaugural edition, the SLSCA provided an umpire and a scorer for the
Vijaya Katupotha team
first round games to ease the cost burden of the schools. In addition, the teams were given the liberty of selecting the venue but with a deadline. After everything worked out accordingly, all second round matches were played in Colombo at two venues – the Railway Ground and Campbell Park,” she assessed.
The original plans revealed that the tournament was to be played as a 30-over competition. The objective of it was to find out if the girls had the endurance to play at least 30 overs before introducing a 50-over competition and to an extent a two-day tournament for girls. But after great consideration and advice from the experts it was decided to bring down the number of overs to 25 per team, before eventually settling with a Twenty20 competition. With teams arriving from all parts of the island, tournament organizers conductors of the tournament are seriously facing a logistics issue but Weeratunga stated that her team from SLSCA will have a final discussion with the
Champika Weeratunga
SLC officials on Tuesday (February 12) before settling off with the tournament.
Amasha Perera
Anula Vidyalaya Nugegoda became the champions of the inaugural competition after beating Gothami Balika Vidyalaya by eight wickets in the final played at Campbell Park. The losing semi-finalists, Vijaya Katupatha Vidyalaya, Chilaw and Revata College Balapitiya, battled in a third place playoff which was won by the former by a comprehensive margin of 10 wickets prior to the final. The semi-finals too were contested keenly and one of them ended in a tie prompting the organisers to go for a Super Over involving the eventual winners Anula and Revata.
“There are occasion when teams scored above 200 runs and it’s an overwhelming achievement for a starter. Since it was the first of the competitions we decided to limit the tournament for those between the age groups of Over13 and Under 19. We only used the matting wicket and the red ball but there are areas we would like to improve on in the future,” stated Weeratunga who also revealed the plans for the future of the competition.
Chethana Madushani
Weeratunga said the competition unearthed many talented players who would have gone undiscovered if not for the initiative. The skippers of the four teams that qualified for the semi-finals told the Sunday Times how pleased they were to compete in a real tournament of ‘hardball cricket’ after engaging in ‘softball cricket’ for years. Almost all the schools that took part in the tournament have been engaged in ‘softball cricket’ (cricket that is played using tennis balls) before transforming their respective teams into real cricketing units.
Sudeshika Chathurangi, the skipper of the Revata College Balapitiya, the losing finalists, revealed that they have had the privilege of practicing and playing along with the boys’ Under-15 side for many years though lack of competition compelled her girls to play softball cricket.
“We started by playing softball cricket and continued to play at all levels and won many titles. But it was never this thrilling,” Chathurangi said.
Chethana Madushani Peiris, the skipper of Vijaya Katupotha, said her school too is a mixed institution but it never had a cricket team until the girls formed one some years back.
Harini Subhashini
“Our school had teams for boys and girls in softball cricket but the girls were the first to take up hardball cricket, two years back. Prior to this we have taken part at the Munchee Sixes tournament earlier but this sort of a big competition was something we always looked forward to,” Madushani revealed.
Anula Vidyalaya’s girls haven’t had any of this experience prior to appearing in the competition. According to Amasha Perera, who is just 14-years-old, it has been less than one year since cricket was introduced at Anula Vidyalaya. Amasha is considered as a potential national player by tournament officials after her outstanding performance as an allrounder.
Sudeshika Chathurangi
“This tournament is a memorable one for us. We started cricket in May last year. Though cricket is a known game it was a good experience to play in a competition of this nature and in the end win it,” she noted.
The 330 girls who were featured in the tournament are keen to do better when the tournament comes back to life in November. At the same time Weeratunga and her support staff too are eager to attract supporters so that the game will grow in time. According to Weeratunga the inaugural tournament would have been a dream for another year if not for the involvement of the SLC as sponsors. She revealed that SLC reserved a budget of rupees 1.5 million for the tournament and has shown dedication to continue its support. “The next official competition will begin after November. With the help of SLC we distributed cricketing gear among the top 16 teams that took part in the competition. What is evident is that the girls’ competition has a long and successful journey ahead,” she optimistically pointed out.
- Naushad Amit
- Pix by Amila Gamage
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