Education Ministry launches school Cricket resurrecting act
Former Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardene sharing his views at the meeting
Amidst all the negative publicity enveloping the game of cricket, the Education Ministry has embarked on a project aimed at rejuvenating the game from the junior level.
Outlining the programme, Sunil Jayaweera , the Special Sports Consultant to the Ministry, told the Sunday Times now the preliminary work of the project was already on the way and by next week a detailed project report would be handed over to the Minister.
Jayaweera explained: “This project has nothing to do with the Rs. 250 million Sports Ministry project for the development of school cricket.”
A few weeks back, the Sunday Times reported on the Rs. 250 million grant allocated to the Sports Ministry in the last budget to develop school cricket, but, it was not very clear about the mechanism of the programme other than the Ministry of Sports was working along with Sri Lanka Cricket. Jayaweera also explained that the allocations for this project would come through the expected allocations from the next budget while the initial costs would be met through existing department resources.
Jayaweera said: “We have former national cricketer Jayantha Seneviratne who is going to anchor the project and he will be assisted by a group of experts who are conversant with the game. Some of the names which are on the card are – Sidath Wettimuny, Roshan Mahanama and Mahela Jayawardena along with reputed coaches who are also past cricketers such as Carlton Bernadus, Roger Wijesuriya, Thilina Kandambi and Sampath Perera along with members of the Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association”.
The project is aimed at streamlining the school cricket arena which was once hailed as one of the best in the world. Since Sri Lanka won the cricket World Cup, the popularity of the game grew leaps and bounds and thus now it has grown to almost unmanageable proportions.
Initially the programme will be launched on a short term basis. While this mechanism is being set in motion, the long-term mechanism will also put into operation.
Top cricket administrator Jayantha Seneviratne, stressing a point
For instance, in the past many schools played more than twenty matches during a season. Now the authorities are contemplating to limit the game to only sixteen matches per season. Of the sixteen games, seven could be traditional matches. Besides this, the big matches will be taken as separate entities.
However, initially the project focus upon the junior grades such as the under 15s and the under17s. The Sunday Times learns that the schools’ under 19 and the Sri Lanka Under 19 have set up separate projects. So at the initial stages, the main age group will run without much change other than what is really necessary.
In the long term, the project organisers aim at developing the schools cricket structure in a Provincial Order in keeping with the demands of the modern day game. When that is set in motion they are hoping to work with Sri Lanka Cricket’s Centres of Excellence.
It is also interesting to note that in spite of having such a well-laid junior cricket structure Sri Lanka under 19 has never won the junior age group ICC World Cup. The highest that they achieved was being the runners-up to India in 2000 under Malintha Gajanayake while vice captain was Thilina Kandambi.
Incidentally, that year the National selection committee chairman was Sidath Wettimuny and the coach was Carlton Bernadus. Wettimuny, Bernadus and Kandambi who were involved in this achievement are members of the Education Ministry’s newly formed School Cricket Development project.