SSC looking forward to retain title
The domestic premier cricket tournament is scheduled to be worked off from the month of December will start off with the limited over tournament with 14 teams divided into two groups of seven teams in each vying for honours.
Defending champions SSC will be seeking to retain the title for yet another year and they are in Group ‘A’ along with Ragama CC, Army SC, Tamil Union, CCC, Saracens SC the team that has been promoted and Badureliya CC.
The teams in Group ‘B’ are NCC, the runners up of last year’s tournament along with Colts, SLPA CC, Bloomfield, Moors SC, Air Force SC and Chilaw Marians.
With the visiting England team in the island for a seven match ODI series against Sri Lanka most of the teams will be sans their top players. The Sri Lanka ODI team has not been finalized and it’s left to be seen which team is going to be affected the most.
Most of the teams have selected their captains with SSC being led by Dimuth Karunaratne, Ragama CC – Lahiru Thirimanne who will be deputised by Udara Jayasundara, Army SC – Asela Gunaratne, Tamil Union – Jeewan Mendis, CCC – Hasantha Fernando, Saracens SC – Upul Indrasiri and Badureliya CC – Milinda Siriwardena.
Upul Tharanga who led NCC last year has again been retained as the captain while for Colts, Dilruwan Perera will deputise Angelo Mathews. Ashan Priyanjan will lead SLPA CC, Bloomfield – Suraj Randiv, Moors SC – Dilhara Lokuhettige, Air Force – Achira Eranga and Chilaw Marians – Sahan Wijeratne.
Apart from SSC and NCC the teams that would be in contention are Colts and Ragama CC who were the two semi-finalists. In fact Colts was the only team to end the round robin stage with an unbeaten record having won all the six matches they played but lost to NCC in the semi-final.
Army SC who had a successful stint last year will be looking forward to put in a better performance this time. But it’s going to be an acid test for newcomers Saracens SC who came into the top division at the expense of Panadura SC whom they defeated in the relegation encounter.
Saracens SC in the recent past has had tremendous success and has been knocking at the door with some scintillating performances. They won the Emerging team trophy tournament and had a fine record in the Sara Trophy tournament too.
However with the monsoon season the prevailing weather will play a major role in the early stages of the tournament which no doubt will hinder the teams in their progress and also the tournament in general.
The tournament will start on December 1 with six matches down for decision. Defending champions will confront newcomers Saracens SC at the SSCC ground.
The other schedule matches are Ragama CC vs CCC at CCC, Army SC vs Tamil Union at Panagoda, NCC vs Air Force at NCC, Colts vs Moors SC at Colts and SLPA CC vs Bloomfield at Reid Avenue.
The team captains:
Group A: SSC – Dimuth Karunaratne; Ragama CC – Lahiru Thirimanne/Udara Jayasundara; Army SC – Asela Guneratne; Tamil Union – Jeewan Mendis; CCC – Hasantha Fernando; Saracens SC – Upul Indrasiri; Badurelya CC – Milinda
Siriwardena.
Group B: NCC – Upul Tharanga; Colts – Angelo Mathews/Dilruwan Perera; SLPA CC – Ashan Priyanjan; Bloomfield – Suraj Randiv; Moors SC –
Dilhara Lokuhettige; Air Force SC – Achira Eranga; Chilaw Marians –
Sahan Wijeratne.