School cricket excellence pays off with SLC bounty
Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) granted cash rewards to school cricket teams who performed well during the first XI season of 2013/ 14. The top recipient was Richmond College Galle, who claimed the Division I League championship for the second year running. Under the captaincy of A.K. Tyronne, Richmond played 18 games and won 11 of them while drawing seven of them. Richmond beat top contenders S. Thomas’ Mount Lavinia, Dharmapala Pannipitiya, St. Servatius Galle, Dharmasoka Ambalangoda, St. Thomas’ Matale, Prince of Wales’, St. Aloysius Galle, Revata Balapitiya, Wesley College, S. de S. Jayasinghe Dehiwela and traditional rivals Mahinda during the concluded season. They were awarded Rs. 1,000,000 for being the best among the 37 first division cricket- playing teams in the country.
The runners-up of the League Championship were Trinity College Kandy and they received a cash reward of Rs. 750,000 for being the second best among the rest. Trinity played 16 games and won six while drawing 10. Among those beaten by Trinity were St. Aloysius Galle, Nalanda, Dharmapala Pannipitiya, Dharmasoka Ambalangoda, Bandaranayake Central Gampaha and President’s Rajagiriya.
Thurstan College, who won the Limited Overs Championship were rewarded with a handsome cash prize of Rs. 500,000 while S. Thomas’ College Mount Lavinia, despite being beaten by their opponents, received Rs. 250,000 after emerging runners-up.
Division II League Champions Anuradhapura Central were rewarded with Rs. 750,000 as a cash reward. They played 15 games and won nine of them while drawing five. Anuradhapura Central beat Madampe College, Sri Sumangala, Devapathiraja Rathgama, Piliyandala Central, St. John’s Panadura, St. Patrick’s Jaffna, Kingswood and Karandeniya Central while losing only to P. de S. Kularatne MV Ambalangoda. They will be promoted to the Division I segment in the coming season.
League runners-up Carey College received Rs. 350,000 for winning seven out of 16 games played. They beat St. Thomas’ Matale, St. Anne’s Kurunegala, St. Xavier’s Marawila, Sastrananda Dehiwela, Raddoluwa MV, St. John’s Nugegoda and St. John’s Panadura while drawing nine games. Division III League Champions Debarawewa Central Tissamaharama received Rs. 500,000 while runners- up Devapathiraja MV Rathgama were presented with Rs. 300,000.
Top officials of SLC and the Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association were present at the ceremony where captains, coaches, masters-in-charge and principals of the recipient schools too participated. This was the first time in history that SLC came up with the idea of presenting cash awards to the schools that performed extremely well in a season. A top official stated that this move was initiated considering the amount of work the school coaches and authorities put into a cricket season in grooming young talent.