Merc ‘D’ division underway
View(s):The 12th Elephant House Lemonade MCA ‘D’ Division Cricket Tournament 2015 got underway yesterday with twenty three teams in the fray.
This year’s tournament took a new turn with the playing quota of overs being reduced to 40 from the earlier 50 overs which was due to the amalgamation of ‘B’ and ‘C’ Divisions pushing up the other divisions.
The 2015 tournament will be conducted in two stages with the ‘League’ round consisting of 55 matches. The knock-out stage with seven matches scheduled to be worked-off March 7 (Quarter-Finals) that will be followed by March 14 Semi-Finals and the Finals on March 21.
The following 23 teams pooled into four groups will battle in the preliminary round:
Group ‘A’: Aitken Spence Group Sports Club, Central Finance Co. Plc, McLarens Group, Polytex Garments and Nations Trust Bank ‘B’
Group ‘B’: Associated Motorways Group, Delmage Group, Davis Peiris Motor Company ‘A, 
Hemas Group, Hilton Colombo Residencies and Sri Lanka Telecom ‘A’
Group ‘C’: AIA Insurance, Bodyline (Pvt) Ltd., Hatton National Bank ‘B’, Kanrich ‘B’, National development and United Tobacco
Group ‘D’: Expolanka Group, HSBC ‘A’, Brumby’s International, Ceylinco Insurance, Asian Alliance Insurance and Trelleborg Lanka.
Last year the then ‘D’ Division 50-Over League was won by John Keells Group lead by Punnyakantha Abeygunasekera when they beat Union Bank by two wickets in the Finals played on December 7 at Thurstan College Grounds.
Sponsors Ceylon Cold Stores (a member of the John Keells Group) will offer special awards to the Best Batsman, Best Bowler, Man of the Tournament and Man of the Finals. The entire matches in the tournament will be under the supervision of the MCA appointed Match Referees and be played at seven venues.
On Monday prior to the media briefing the President of the MCA handed over the MCA Emerging Player of the Year package to Lahiru Milantha of John Keells Group. Lahiru is an Old Peterite and plays for Ragama Cricket Club in the SLC Premier League. This youngster is the third to be selected but being the second recipient left the country on Tuesday and will join the Darrel Lehmann Cricket Academy in South Australia. First was Dimuth Karunaratne and Chaturanga de Silva was the second to win the scholarship.
-LR