The Coca-Cola Cricket Pathway has been successful in producing 12 star players to represent the Sri Lanka U-19 National team. The 14 member U-19 pool consisted of 12 players from programme and they were successful in emerging winners of the tournament. The team brought additional honour to Sri Lanka recently by becoming the first national side from Sri Lanka to win a series in Australia.
In an endeavor to identify and reach out to aspiring cricketers at the grass root level, The Company in collaboration with the Aravinda de Silva Cricket Foundation conducted the programme over an 18-month period. The entire initiative was organized to promote cricket and identify young cricketing talent across the country and the selection of players who participated and excelled in the Pathway Programme to the national squad is evidence of the success and significance of the programme at school level cricket in Sri Lanka.
The National U-19 squad selected for the Tri-Series tour comprised six players from the outstations - Matale, Kandy, Galle and Matara, the rest were from schools in Colombo and the suburbs. The inclusion of Lahiru Malinga from Matale is a reflection of the success of company’s quest to bring rural cricketers to the limelight and provide them with the opportunity of entering the national squad. Young Lahiru initially captured the attention of many cricket professionals at the first Coca-Cola Cricket Pathway programme in April, 2008 at the Rangiri Dambulu Stadium.
 |
| |
 E-mail |
| |
views[1] |
|
|
