Sri Lankan student honoured with opportunity to deliver match ball at Rugby World Cup 2015
View(s):Harsha Samarasinghe, an Under-14 rugby player from Trinity College Kandy, will represent Sri Lanka and will have the unprecedented honour of delivering the official Match Ball onto the field of play, during Rugby World Cup 2015 in England coming September. After a programme initiated by DHL Express, young Harsha received an opportunity of a lifetime, to deliver a match ball at a Rugby World Cup 2015 (RWC 2015) game.
Harsha Samarasinghe accepting the award as the winner of the DHL Match Ball Delivery campaign from DHL Country Manager Dimithri Perera. Also in the picture are (from from) Mario de Silva (National Commercial Manager, DHL), Asanga Seneviratne (President of SLRFU and LasithaGunaratne (Vice President of SLRFU).
He will be the official match ball delivery boy for the scheduled RWC game on October 6 to be held at Leicester. He won this honour through the DHL Match Ball Delivery Programme contest, after an online and SMS voting campaign.
In collaboration with the Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union (SLRFU), DHL Express Sri Lanka set predetermined criteria for the selection process of the online voting and SMS campaign which spanned over a month. The ultimate winner went through three stages of the selection process to finally get the chance to deliver the official Match Ball at a Rugby World Cup game.
The final phase was built up to the point of exhilaration as the votes of well-wishers, family and friends of the final list of students played an active role in selecting the winner from the short listed 20 candidates from the previous round.Finalists received an outstanding response via online votes via the DHL Express Sri Lanka’s official Facebook page in addition to SMS votes.
The winner’s prize package includes — two match tickets to a selected game for young Harsha and one parent, RWC 2015 DHL Merchandise kit including uniform, rugby ball, return flights and two night’s accommodation him and the parent and a Thank You Gift of a Match Ball Delivery photo as a memento.
DHL, as the Official Logistics Partner for Rugby World Cup 2015, has carried out a highly interactive DHL Match Ball Delivery Programme also known locally as the Rugby Dream Campaign. This initiative is part of DHL’s global campaign to select rugby-playing school students between the ages of 8 to 15 years to deliver match balls for all the 48 games at the Rugby World Cup 2015.
In Sri Lanka, DHL Express formed a working relationship with the Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union (SLRFU) to select an initial 80 rugby-playing students from among the 36 Division ‘A’ schools. Based on rugby skills displayed during a rugby clinic, and reviewed by the Sri Lanka National Team members, the final 20 children were selected. – NA