Forerunner to the Provincial Tourney is under way

The Under ( U)- 15 Inter- District Cricket Tournament 2017 organised and conducted by Sri Lanka Cricket ( SLC) is under way. It will be followed by the all important Prima Inter- Provincial competition for the Prima Champions Cup 2017. Prima Group Sri Lanka will sponsor the 2 tournaments for the 11th successive year. The District competition had over 600 players from 39 teams islandwide participating. The best players from these Districts will be selected for the 12 Provincial teams, for the Provincial Championship. It is noteworthy that 5 teams from the Northern Province will represent Jaffna, Mannar, Vavuniya, Mullaitiv and Kilinochchi Districts. The performances of the outstation cricketers will be closely monitored, as this is a fine opportunity to unearth hidden talent and bring them under the wings of qualified coaches for the benefit of Sri Lanka cricket's future .

The preliminary matches of the Provincial Tournament will be played on matting wickets, while the final will be played on the SSC turf, on Sept.14.

With the SLC vision that today's cricketers of this level will be tomorrow's national cricketers, organising competitive cricket at age group lev- els will showcase talent islandwide. U-15 cricket is the launch pad for a young cricketer. Cricket at provincial level is the correct step taken by the SLC to improve the standard of cricket in the island, starting with the Prima U-15 tournament.

At the press briefing held on the sponsorship presentation at SLC headquarters, SLC Vice President M. Mathivanan, while thanking Prima for their continuous sponsorship, extolled the values of Inter Provincial cricket, which he said is a strong foundation at junior level that will guide the budding cricketers into the international arena, matured and ready.

The Vice President went on to say that present national cricketers in the calibre of Anjelo Mattews, Kusal Mendis, Dhananjaya de Silva, Niroshan Dikwella and Binura Fernando have participated in the Prima Cup, along with Anuk Fernando, Sadeera Samarawickrema and Priyamal Perera who represented the U-19 team.

BERGEN, Norway, Sept 16, 2017 (AFP) - Chris Froome will spearhead the Sky team at the World Championships in Norway as the Tour de France champion aims for a second double of his stunning 2017 season.

The 32- year- old is already enjoying the greatest year of his career having claimed a Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana double for the first time.

And now he will aim to add to that a pair of time- trial victories in Bergen as he competes for Great Britain on Wednesday in the individual time- trial, just three days after representing Sky in the team time-trial alongside former road race wo rl d champion Mich a l Kwiatkowski and Commonwealth Games champion Geraint Thomas.

Froome's insatiable appetite for success was evident on the final stage of the Vuelta less than a week ago as, already