Royal to take part in Schools tournament
View(s):By Naushad Amit
After shutting themselves out for two seasons from the Inter schools cricket tournament, Royal College have decided to return to the SLSCA run
Singer Schools Under-19 Cricket Tournament from this season, the Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association (SLSCA) confirmed.
Unlike last season, where Royal was placed in division two and they opposed it by staying away and played only friendly matches, they have agreed to play in Division II tournament this season.
Royal will play 16 tournament matches of the SLSCA and other traditional fixtures including the annual Battle of the Blues encounter. Despite not taking part in the SLSCA tournament for the past two seasons, Royal continued with their friendly fixtures, which numbered to over 20 encounters.“Earlier Royal were having a wrong impression on the SLSCA implementations but now they have realized the importance of taking part in our competitions. In fact Royal is an important school cricket team in Sri Lanka, and without them our tournaments are incomplete. We are glad to have them back in the fold” Dilshan de Silva, the Secretary of SLSCA stated.
However none from the Royal coaching staff or cricket administration, which has been totally overhauled after last season, were available to make an official comment on the situation.
Two seasons ago, in December 2012, the Battle of the Blues partners, Royal and S. Thomas’ decided to pull out from tournaments organised and conducted by the SLSCA. Both schools did not give reasons for their withdrawal but this sudden move took place when officials of the SLSCA and Ministry of Education were set to discuss a national policy for schools cricket.
Later on S. Thomas’ officially confirmed their unavailability for the 2012/13 season, citing concern for their players’ academic and sporting wellbeing. Last season S. Thomas’ were reinstated by the SLSCA.
But Royal was not taken back into the fold by the SLSCA stating that they could not make any special provisions for an individual school.
Royal officials stated that their decision to withdraw from the SLSCA tournament was purely based on the proposed plans which they said would do no good for school cricket.
However in two years the SLSCA has managed to control the number of matches a team plays during a season by limiting the games to 16 per season. Fixtures beyond the tournament are not considered for points and these games are categorised as traditional or friendly fixtures. In addition the duration between two games for a team was extended to 72 hours.
Though Royal has been drafted to Division II, they will just play against two teams from that segment with one of them being a team which was also demoted from Division I. The other team which is a normal feature in division II mainly plays against top Division I teams. From the total of 16 tournament games to be played by Royal, 14 are against Division I sides. Royal will begin their First XI season against St. Anne’s College Kurunegala at their home ground in Reid Avenue on September 28.