SLSCA seek approval from higher authorities to begin U-19 cricket
Focusing on the ICC Youth World Cup 2022, the Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association (SLSCA) is on the verge of obtaining permission from the Ministry of Education to resume schools cricket with a Limite Overs tournament.
With all sports activities coming to a standstill since March 2020 due to COVID-19, schools sports, including cricket, has faced a major setback sans activities for almost 11 months. With school players needing time and training prior to the biannual world event, the tournament committee of SLSCA met last week to discuss the possibilities of resuming school cricket no sooner than later.
The conclusive decision made after the meeting was to obtain permission from the Ministry of Education, after explaining the facts and reasons, and one of the possible ways to seek approval was to present a shortened calendar of activities.
With the recommendation from its members, the SLSCA has asked permission to conduct a Limited Overs tournament for the Under-19 age category. The tournament committee of SLSCA has earmarked the duration as March 20 to April 30, with a break in-between for new year.
However the tournament will solely serve the purpose of giving the players the much needed warm up and training before picking potential candidates to be named for the Sri Lanka Under-19 side. Accordingly promotions and relegations, which happens annually after a season, will not affect this intended tournament or season.
“This tournament will be important for us to select the Sri Lanka Under-19 pool for the next ICC Youth World Cup, which generally takes place during the beginning of that year. The plan is to limit the first round to five matches per team and complete it within three weeks. Teams that will top the group will advance to the knockout round, which we have planned to stage after the new year break,” an official of SLSCA stated.
In addition, the SLSCA is also looking at possibilities of conducting the Under-19 Girls Tournament, and beginning the Under-15 and Under-17 competitions, which usually begins between May and June annually.
“We may have to obtain permission from the Ministry of Education first. If the Under-19 Limited Overs Tournament could be staged as planned, we will get the opportunity to assess the progress and shortfalls and look at other tournaments we are hoping to conduct. At the same time we are highly concerned on the academic activities as well, students missed a large portion in both studies and extracurricular. We are hopeful of making a gradual return,” the official added.
The 2019/2020 season of school cricket came to an inconclusive end, when the COVID-19 pandemic caused a standstill in all day-to-day activities, including sports. Since then requests were made to higher authorities from time-to-time by different sports bodies, including SLSCA, which were turned down. Most of the cricket big matches were abandoned due to this reason last year.