Sarathchandra and Kapila at the helm of school Cricket
The Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association (SLSCA), one of the important stakeholders of local cricket, held its Annual General Meeting on Friday to elect its office bearers for 2016-2018 at the Subodhi Maha Vidyala auditorium in Wattala.
Despite Sarathchandra Silva, the principal of Kalutara Vidyalaya being elected as the new President of SLSCA uncontested, the position of Secretary had a close battle among three contenders. Eventually Kapila Jayalath representing Karadeniya Central was elected with a tally of 88 votes, against Saman Hettiarachchi, who obtained 64 votes and Nishantha Kumara of Devapathiraja Maha Vidyalaya Ratgama, who received 41 votes.
Upon his election Jayalath stated that the new set of office bearers are keen on working optimistically towards coming out as a proficient outfit. “We will announce our plans to streamline school cricket within the next few days. Cricket has certainly improved and our task as officials who govern the sport has become more challenging with more schools joining in to play the game at competitive level. Our concern will be based on the sport and its stakeholders and we will work hard towards transforming SLSCA as one of well respected, well recognised and responsible sports governing bodies at schools level in the country,” an optimistic Jayalath told the Sunday Times.
The Treasurer’s post went uncontested to Manjula Vass of Basilica College Ragama. The five positions for Vice President were filled by B.A. Abeyratne (Royal College Colombo), Oshara Panditharatne (Lumbini College), Jagath Senaratne (P. de S. Kularatne Ambalangoda), Mohan Wickramasinghe (St. Sebastian’s College Katuneriya) and U. WImalasena (Dharmapala College Pannipitiya).
Leelananda Kumarasiri of Theraputta National School Ambalantota was elected Assistant Secretary while Pradeep Dharmaratne filled the position of Assistant Treasurer. The Executive Committee of SLSCA, which consist of over 80 members was named at the AGM. At the same occasion Tournament Secretaries of four age categories were named with Kamal Indrajith of Kegalu Vidyalaya retaining his position as the custodian of the Under-19 Tournament, the most important competition of all. Wasantha Haputantri of St. Peter’s College also was retained as the Tournament Secretary of the Under-17 age category.
Mahinda Uduwarella of Maliyadeva College Kurunegala was appointed as the Under-15 Tournament Secretary while Palinda Madi de Silva of Maliyadeva Model School was appointed as Addition Tournament Secretary. Malik Keerthi of De Mazenod College was appointed the Tournament Secretary of the Under-13 age group and he will have the assistance of A.M.A.P Atapattu as Additional Tournament Secretary.