The count increases to nine
Muttiah Muralitharan, Co-Founder and Trustee FoG displaying a T-Shirt after briefing the media at the launch of the 5th Murali Harmony Cup T20
It’s cricket fiesta again in the northern district of Sri Lanka when the Murali Harmony Cup T20 cricket tournament which builds bridges of friendship that brings together young cricketers from across the island on to one field is set to start off from September 21. It will be five day’s of entertaining cricket which is scheduled to be played in four venues across northern Sri Lanka in the towns of Jaffna, Oddusuddan (Mullativu), Mankulam and Kilinochchi. This was revealed at press briefing held auditorium of Upali’s at Nawaloka on Thursday. The tournament which is the fifth edition will again feature 16 teams in the boys’ category which is divided into four groups and eight teams in the ladies category divided into two groups. The tournament began in 2011 in Seenigama which was contested by five international teams and three local teams from Seenigama, Matale and Jaffna.
The success and the interest shown saw the tournament expanding to 20 teams in 2012 which had twelve in the boys’ category and eight in the ladies and the organisers decided to increase the participation of teams to 24. The tournament is the brainchild of legendary bowler Muttiah Muralitharan whose charity the Foundation of Goodness and supported by the Sri Lanka Army in conducting the tournament. Kushil Gunasekera, Founder of Foundation of Goodness (FoG) briefing the media emphasized that it’s not easy to organise a tournament of this nature however we are delighted to conduct the fifth edition of the Murali Harmony Cup which has made great progress over the past years towards promotion of rural cricket and to develop friendship and reconciliation across the island, bringing together aspiring cricketers from the northern, southern, eastern, western and central regions.
The incredible support we receive from FoG trustees, cricketing legends Muttiah Muralitharan, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardena is tremendous, which has been crucial in making this tournament such a great success. Added to that the volunteer team from FoG along with the Sri Lanka Army have tirelessly worked towards planning and executing, undertaking to uplift and support rural communities through the spirit of cricket for which we are grateful. St Peter’s Bambalapitiya emerged champion of the first two tournaments (2012 and 2013) while Ananda wont the previous two (2014 and 2015) and the organisers with the idea of giving opportunities to other schools have not included the two teams.
Nine teams Royal Colombo, Nalanda, Zahira Maradana, Jaffna central, St Joseph’s Colombo, Kalutara MV, St Aloysius Ratnapura, Kingswood and Mahinda Galle will be playing in the tournament for the first time. The Ladies first round matches are 15-overs-per-side. There will be no semi-final for Ladies and the Top two Teams from the respective groups will play in the final. The two finals will be played at the Kilinochchi Central ground on September 25 with the Ladies final in the morning from 9.30 a.m. and the Boys final in the afternoon from 1.40 p.m. onwards. In the Ladies tournament Army Women (2012), Shakthi Ladies Anuradhapura (2-13), FoG Seenigama Ladies (2014) and Nittambuwa Ladies (2015) were the champions.
The participating teams in the boys tournament – Group ‘A’ – Jaffna Combine Schools, Royal Colombo, Seenigama Combined Schools, Upcountry Combined Schools. Group ‘B’ – Jaffna Central, St Joseph’s Colombo, Moneragala Combined Schools, Zahira Colombo. Group ‘C’ – Kilinochchi/Mullativu Combined Schools, Nalanda Colombo, Kalutara MV, St Aloysius Ratnapura. Group ‘D’ – Mannar/Vavuniya Combined Schools, Kingswood Kandy, Mahinda Galle, Trincomalee/Batticaloa Combined Schools. Ladies Clubs – Group ‘A’ – Nittambuwa Ladies, Shakthi Ladies Anuradhapura, North/East Combined Ladies, Badulla Ladies. Group ‘ B’ – Seenigama Ladies, Matale Ladies, Polonnaruwa Ladies, Moneragala Ladies Academy.