MCA Singer League 2016 from Sept.23 to Oct. 11
View(s):The 23rd inning of the Singer-MCA Partnership gets underway on September 23 with the commencement of the MCA Singer Premier ‘League’ 2016 segment. This year will be the 23rd successive year Singer Sri Lanka sponsoring the tournament which will be played in three segments – Premier League, Knock-Out and T20 with the League segment will be played on nine selected venues from September 23 to October 11. The knock-out stage will be commencing on October 14 and the finals to be played at the MCA on October 25. T20 Super Tournament will start on November 4 and the finals is to be played on November 8, Sunday.
Officials at the launch
Seven teams that will be competing in the Super League stage are: MAS Unichela ‘A’ (2015 ‘League’ winner), MAS Active Trading ‘A’ (2015 knock-out winner), John Keells Group ‘A’, (2015 knock-out Runner-up), Sampath Bank, Hatton National Bank ‘A’, Seylan Bank and Commercial Credit and Finance PLC.
Twenty one matches will be played in the League stage while six matches are scheduled to be played in the Knock-Out stage. Seven matches will be played in the T20 Tier ‘A’ with eight teams (Seven Premier League teams and the Winner of MCA ‘B’ Division winner), starting from the quarter-final stage on October 28 and the finals on November 1.
The Official Ball used for the tournament will be the original Australian ‘Koocaburra’ Turf White Ball donated by the Sri Lanka Cricket. At the press briefing on the launch of the tournament held at the MCA Fine Dining Restaurant last Wednasday MCA authorities paid a high tribute for Singer Sri Lanka – the pioneer promoter of sports for being in partnership with the MCA for a long period of 23 years and brought to the notice of the teams and players that the game should be played to the highest traditions maintaining a high standard of conduct and discipline which will be closely monitored by the MCA. It was also brought to the notice that this year too the performance of players will be closely watched by the national selectors and this will be a good opening for the cricketers to show their prowess to catch the eyes of the selectors.
There will be special awards for the Best Batsman, Best Bowler, Man of the Match in the league stage, the Man of the Match for the knock-out and the Best Batsman, Best Bowler, Man of the Final and Man of the Series for T20 Super. The special award for the Emerging Player in the league segment will receive an all expenses paid two weeks Scholarship to the Darren Lehmann Cricket Academy, South Australia. This year’s recipient of this scholarship will be the third as Chaturanga De Silva (Commercial Credit) and Lahiru Milantha (John Keells) were awarded scholarships earlier.