MCA ‘C’ Div. 50-Over League Tournament 2018 starts today
The Sponsorship handover ceremony was held last Wednesday at the 'Pitch' MCA Fine Dining Restaurant. Pic by Ranjith Perera
The MCA ‘C’ Division 50-Over League Tournament 2018 will see 14 teams, including 8 newcomers, battle for the 7th prestigious ‘BMC-Hyundai’ Trophy commencing this weekend.
With the intent of improving the standard of Cricket in the ‘C’ Division, the MCA Tournament Committee headed by Tharindra Kaluperuma acceded to requests of the 8 new teams to take part in the tournament. Low Division teams with talented players and players in the Premier League had appealed to play in the higher Division.
It is a good move by the MCA to make the championship more competitive with the 8 newcomerss from the Finance sector.
It is also understood that the Tournament Committee has ruled that only 2 1st Class Club players per team from the ‘G’ Division downwards.
The ‘C’ Division competition has improved by falling in line with the MCA Premier League. Firstly it moved from matting to turf, the ODI licence, coloured clothing, white ball and other requirements of a 50-Over match.
For the first time, the draw was electronically conducted and the 14 teams slotted into 2 groups as follows:
Group ‘A’
Citizens Development Business Finance, Commercial Leasing & Finance, Stafford Motor Co. (new), Kanrich Finance ‘B’ (new), Peoples Leasing & Finance, Colombo Dockyard Ltd and Standard Chartered Bank (2017 Runners-up).
Group ‘B’
Commercial Bank (new), JL Morison & Jones, Heshan Flexi Packaging (new), Pyramid Wilmer (new), Nations Trust Bank ‘A’, Softlogic Holdings (new) and PABC Bank.
The tournament will be conducted in 2 Stages – the ‘League’, consisting 42 matches and the ‘Knockout’ consisting of 7 matches, making a total of 49 matches.
At the completion of the 42 League matches, the 1st 4 teams teams of each Group in the table of points, will advance to the elimination stage – Quarterfinals, Semifinals and the Final (7 Matches).
The quarterfinals are simultaneously scheduled for Mar.3, the semis on Mar.10 and the final on Mar.17 at the MCA Grounds.
The ‘BMW-Hyundai’ special awards on offer are for Best Batsman, Best Bowler, Player of the Series and Man of the Final.