Schools quarter-finals to go ahead – no change

Sticking to their original decision, the Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association (SLSCA) will not conduct the pre quarter-final stage of the ongoing Under-19 Schools’ Cricket Tournament, Secretary of the SLSCA Kapila Jayalath confirmed to the ‘ ’ yesterday.

The decision - which will see only two teams, instead of four, from the four groups in the division I and II Tournaments of school cricket qualify for the next round - was taken following a meeting yesterday between the SLSCA and schools.

The ‘ ’ learns that masters-in-charge of schools that had qualified for the quarter-finals and schools that had missed out due to the change in the tournament format had participated at the meeting, and that the two groups were met with separately by the SLSCA - a move that some schools in the latter group have voiced their opposition against.

Secretary of the SLSCA Kapila Jayalath while confirming that the tournament will go ahead without the pre-quarters, a decision he reiterated was made before the season began, said that it would not have been ethical to change the decision at this stage.

“We have to look after over 300 schools and it would not be ethical and fair to change the decision at this stage,” he said, adding: “We met the schools separately as we felt that if the schools had met together it would only result in an argument over our decision which is also not ethical.”

A coach, of a leading school, speaking to ‘

’, reiterated the concerns that the quality of cricket would be compromised with this decision, and that a format where only two teams qualified from a group was not beneficial to the future of cricket.

“Last year’s tournament (when four teams qualified from each group) was conducted well and was appreciated. However, this current format is questionable and we raised objections which were ignored,” the coach claimed.

While the ultimate decision lies with the SLSCA, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) had earlier voiced its preference to not do away with the pre quarter-final stage, and with the interests of school cricket at stake, SLC as a the guardian of the game in the country should take the responsibility of providing an impartial solution to the issue.