Singer sponsored Mercantile Cricket on again
CRICKET: The Mercantile Cricket Association which recently celebrated
its Centenary, announced the advancement of its most important and
eagerly awaited,the Singer/MCA Premier League and the Knock-out
tournaments, for the year 2012, started yesterday.
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Official sponsorship for 19th Singer-Premier League and
Knock-Out Cricket Tournaments took place at the MCA. Singer
Sri Lanka PlC, Marketing Director Nazar Majeed (third from
right) hands over the cheque to the MCA President Mahesh
Wijewrdene (third from left). From left: Rohan Dissanayake -
Chairman, Tournament Committee, Rohan Iddamalgoda - General
Secretary (both from MCA), Asantha Karunaratne - Senior
Manager Merchandising and K.D.S. Kanishka (Manager
promotions (both from Singer Sri Lanka, PLC. |
MCA informed the reasons for the advancement, being the numerous
requests from players themselves, as well as the top notch participating
Mercantile establishments appealing to stage the highly acclaimed and
competitive tournament prior to the Sri Lanka Cricket season. This move
gave the opportunity for the participation of national cricketers, as
well as SLC contracted players for their respective firms.
The Singer/MCA Premier Tournament for the year 2012, once again is
sponsored by Singer, Sri Lanka PLC (For the 19th consecutive year)
making it the longest running sponsorship in the history of MCA.
The tournament will feature 7 teams consisting virtually the entire
national and contracted cricketers in the top league. All players will
be free from club responsibilities, as well as SLC tournament fixture.
The SLC 2012 season is scheduled to commence early December 2011.
All seven teams are playing in the first week of action.
Edirisinghe Trust Investments (ETI) will be making their debut in the
big league, surrounded by Sampath Bank (2011 League Winner), Seylan Bank
(2011 K-O Winner), MAS Unichela (2011 K-O runners-up), HNB, John Keells
and MAS Active.
Janashakthi Insurance will be a notable absentee.
The single group league stage consisting of 21 matches will go on
till the 16th of November 2011, spread around 5 venues, namely, Colts,
BRC, Moratuwa Stadium, Bloomfield and FTZ/Katunayake.
All 7 teams playing in the league will be absorbed into the knock-out
stage, consisting of 6 matches which will be played on the 20th and 23rd
of November with the final at the SSC Grounds on the 26th November 2011.
All 27 Matches will be supervised by a Match Referee, appointed by
the MCA Tournament Committee. The hand picked Match Referees are: Basil
Perera, Upali Warnapura, K.H. Nandasena and Nalliah Devarajan.
The tournament will have all the paraphernalia used by the ICC in
One-Day Internationals (ODIs), including the latest ICC rules that came
into the books, I.e. new power play blocks, no runner for a batsman
while batting, the bowler attempting to run-out the non-striker before
delivery & two new balls used from each end of each match.
The tournament is bound to reach great heights, as the cream of Sri
Lanka cricketers are representing the 7 teams; Sampath Bank led by
Thilina Kandamby, Seylan Bank led by Chanaka Wijesinghe, MAS Unichela
led by Malin Silva, HNB led by Chinthaka Jayasinghe, John Keells led by
Janaka Gunaratne, MAS Active led by Jeewantha Kulatunga & newcomers,
ETI, led by Dinesh de Silva
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