Apart from their commitments with the Sri Lanka national cricket team, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has made plans to send two junior teams and the country’s second string team abroad on tours, according to Ashley de Silva. Accordingly Sri Lanka Cricket will send the national Under-17 team to India while the Under-19 team will visit Malaysia to play in the Youth Asia Cup. In addition the Sri Lanka ‘A’ team is set to tour the Africa.
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| The Youth Asia Cup will be a vital outing for the Sri Lanka Under-19s before the World Cup which will be held in Australia later this year. |
According to de Silva the Sri Lanka Under-17 cricket team will take part in an invitational tournament which features 10 states teams from India. The Sri Lanka Under-17 cricketers will play three limited overs games in Mumbai during the period of May 6 to 12.
“We have been invited to participate in the Coca-Cola Indian Schools tournament, a competition sanctioned by the Board of Control for Cricket in India. We will play three exhibition limited overs matches there. As usual all expenses will be taken care of by SLC. There will be no charges from the players,” de Silva said.
The Under-19 players meanwhile will take part in the Asia Cup featuring eight teams. The competition will be worked off from June 21 to July 10 in two groups. India, Malaysia, Nepal and Pakistan will feature in a group while Sri Lanka will play along Afhanistan, Bangladesh and Qatar in the other group. This will be the Sri Lanka Under-19 team’s final international assignment before the Youth World Cup which is scheduled to be held in August in Australia.
Sri Lanka ‘A’ will resume touring during July and August as they visit South Africa and Zimbabwe. During July they will visit South Africa to play a three-day game and two unofficial Test matches. Following that the Sri Lankans will visit Zimbabwe to take part in a Triangular Series which also features South Africa ‘A’.
“Both junior squads for the upcoming tours have not been finalised yet. The junior coaching staff of SLC has conducted trial matches for Under-17 cricketers but a squad has been not selected yet. We have an Under-19 squad comprising 33 players but it is yet to be pruned down. We have a pool of potential and national players for the Sri Lanka ‘A’ squad. But the final selections for these three tours will be done in due course,” he went on to say. - NA |
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