Overlapping school cricket plans by SLC, MoE
Fears of player burn-out over ad-hoc influx of cricket
The futuristic and timely schools cricket development programme was launched last week under the auspices of the Ministry of Education ( MoE), but sans the customary pomp and pageant.
At a juncture when the schools sphere is growing in quantity sans quality, a group of cricket doyens grouped to bring about some sanity to this segment of the game that has been the feeder point to the national grid through its history.
Besides the customary officials of the Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association ( SLSCA), the Steering Committee that developed this concept paper included former Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) Interim Committee Chairman Sidath Wettimuny, former national cricket captains Mahela Jayawardena and Roshan Mahanama, world bowling record holder Muttiah Muralitharan and former SLC Interim Committee member Kushil Gunasekera.
The driver of this programme will be former national cricketer and national selector Jayantha Seneviratne, while the head of cricket operations is Carlton Bernadus – former first class cricketer and a coach who was entrusted with the same responsibility with SLC under the Thilanga Sumathipala administration, till recently.
This ' steering' concept is aimed at school cricket from 2018 to 2020, and is called the revamping of the Schools’ Under (U )-13, U -15, U -17 and U -19 Cricket tournaments, to create a pathway to the national level.
However, one wonders if there could be duplication of strategies in this exercise to develop school cricket. For instance, the SLC is also engaged in a similar programme to develop AgeGroup cricket with the guinea pigs for both projects being schoolchildren.
At the recent SLC Special General Meeting, its authorities once again nominated the President of the SLSCA and its Secretary to its Officials' list, without mentioning the part that the Education Department’s Cricket concept could play for the development of the game.
An MoE spokesman told the Sunday Times, they invited SLC for these meetings, while SLC CEO Ashley De Silva denied they were invited for the discussions.
Yet, there are some overlapping areas such as Clause 8 of the paper stating they would arrange Home -and -Away International-Age-Group competitions, and they also have their own selection committee. But, SLC CEO de Silva says any international cricket team has to go through the existing channels. He said, “Any representative side has to be selected by the national selectors, with the approval of the Minister of Sports. As far as we are concerned, we have two SLSCA officials who are within the SLC framework.”
Another overlapping area is the coaching segment. While the MoE programme has its coaching segment headed by former national cricketer and U- 19 national coach Roger Wijesuriya, Sri Lanka also has a deep rooted coaching programme for junior cricket.
SLC also has an Age- Group Cricket segment that involves school cricketers but, that segment begins only after the main school tournament conducted by the Ministry of Education, is over.
However, experts say the amount of cricket that the school boy cricketer plays for a season -- running from mid second term to the end of the end of the first term -- is already high.
In the midst, the schoolboy cricketers now also have to comply with the SLC's call of age group provincial assignments and they point out that could be a cause of player burn-out.
However in a surprise turn of events the newly elevated SLC vice president Mohan de Silva in reply to our questions said "So far we have not received the proposals which were mooted by the Education Ministry steering committee.
"At present we have our own plans strategies for junior cricket in Sri Lanka, which is comprehensive. However, if do receive these proposals through the proper Sports Ministry channels, yes, we would like to sit and discuss with them and see how we could move forward".
This 'steering' concept is aimed at school cricket from 2018 to 2020, and is called the revamping of the Schools’ Under (U)-13, U-15, U-17 and U-19 Cricket tournaments, to create a pathway to the national level.