The Ministries of Education and Sports have decided to ban the Twenty20 version of cricket on schoolboys under the age of 18 years. This decision was made according to Rohana Karunaratne, the Director of Sports for Ministry of Education, on Friday (25) after a meeting held at the Ministry.
According to Karunaratne who represented the Education Ministry at the meeting were the National Institute of Sports Medicine Director Prof. Arjuna Silva and two representatives of Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association (SLSCA). However Karunaratne said that Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) did not send any of their representatives for the meeting though it was them who initially brought the proposal to ban T20 cricket in schoolboys.
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| Local officials are more keen to produce technically perfect Test cricketers. (Pic by Amila Prabodha) |
“We discussed the matter of banning and it was eventually decided to ban players under the age of 18 years from competing or engaging in Twenty20 cricket. But we could not make an in-depth discussion because of the absence of a SLC representative,” Karunaratne told the Sunday Times.
He also revealed that the two representatives of SLSCA had agreed to most of the conclusions, but had appealed the panel that they be given the green light to conduct the Under-19 Schools Twenty20 Championship. According to Karunaratne the SLSCA was granted the permission to hold the tournament but under certain terms. He went on to say that they could not decline this request as the two SLSCA officials had agreed to all the conditions.
“The two SLSCA representatives agreed to stick to our conditions which were strictly based on the players. They are only allowed to enter the top 16 teams from the two-day league tournament. Then they agreed to hold the tournament during the first term and hold it within four days. Most importantly the teams should not field any players under the age of 18 though it’s an Under-19 championship. These were our conditions and they agreed,” he said.
Karunaratne who was also a former top official of the SLSCA shared the same opinion as of SLC that Twenty20 cricket seldom helps the next breed of Test cricketers where Sri Lanka as a nation is struggling at present. In recent times Sri Lanka has failed to discover Test cricketers of high calibre and experts point their finger on to the more entertaining Twenty20 version for killing the future prospects.
“We all agreed at the meeting that Twenty20 cricket was too stressful to the schoolboys.
And it is obvious that after they get addicted to this version we will lose potential Test players. Considering these issues we also came up with a new proposal to limit the two-day inter-schools cricket tournament and restrict under a general format where all teams will play equal number of matches. I think the number of matches being played by a school team at present is too high. We will forward this appeal to the Education Ministry this week,” Karunaratne revealed.
None of the top officials of SLC were available for a comment on their failure to make a representation at the meeting. Karunaratne said that by the coming week an official circular will be sent to all schools on the decision which they hope will be strictly followed. |
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