National Baseball League championships begins
The National Baseball League Championship for the year 2013 will pitch off at the Japan-Sri Lanka Baseball ground in Diyagama, Homagama today. Only eight teams will be eligible to compete at this championship, which is the most important among baseball tournaments played in Sri Lanka.
According to Sri Lanka Baseball Association officials the National Baseball League will only field the top eight among teams that competed in the National Baseball Knockout Championship which sees a larger number of teams participating. The eight teams who qualified for this year’s competition are defending champions Ranabima Royal BC, DS Knights BC, Army BC and Frontiers BC who will compete under Group ‘A’. Current runner-up Royal BC, Maroons BC, Shakthi BC and Navy BC will compete from Group ‘B’.
“There is a host of national players competing in the competition. Defending champs Ranabima Royal has five of them while the losing finalist at last year’s tournament, Royal BC has three players. These two sides will be the favourites in the tournament as usual but this season Navy BC is considered the dark horses. They have qualified for the competition for the first time and are capable of causing a few upset wins, considering their performances in the concluded knockout tournament,” SLBA official Heshan Premaratne stated.
One of the sides that could become a threat to any top team are Maroons BC, who managed to secure the overall third place of the National Baseball League in the past two occasions. In addition Army BC, who has four national players in their possession, too can be termed as an unpredictable side. The competition will pitch off with the opening game between Maroons BC and Royal BC which is scheduled to be played at 10.00am at Diyagama.
The game between DS Knights and Ranabima Royal will be played afterwards at 2.00pm. Two games each will be played on Sundays until January 15 during the first round. The second round of the competition will begin on January 26 among the top two teams of each group and matches will be continued every Sunday before the competition comes to an end with the final which will be played on February 16.