Kandy short of cricket venues
by Hafiz Marikar
As the inter-schools cricket season draws to a close and the last few
overs are being bowled, there are those who are looking forward to a
more vigorous game rugby. The first school game will kickoff on Friday.
Over here in the hills, the schools cricket tournament for the year,
will come to an end in a fortnight. The Kandy schools have performed
very well despite several obstacles beyond their control, but still
continues the progress with plenty young talent available in Kandy for
the future of cricket in Sri Lanka. In the last season Trinity College
dominated the school scene by winning the league, one day and the T-20.
It is interesting to highlight some of the difficulties faced by
several schools in the Kandy district with the lack of playing venues
for practices and matches, but still perform at their best. According to
the available records the following schools are those who play this game
at their best: Trinity, St. Anthony's, Kingswood, Dharmaraja, St.
Sylvester's, Sri Sumangala, Vidyartha, Sri Rahula Colleges.
Except for Trinity, St. Anthony's and Dharmaraja, many schools have
no grounds for their matches, or in some instances lack of suitable
grounds to practice.
Although the parent body for cricket in Sri Lanka has one of the best
cricket venues at Pallekele and opened for hiring this venue for
fixtures, the constrain here is that it's far from the city and most
schools find it difficult to get there and the expenses of travel,
ground charges, maintenance and security controls etc are above their
means.
Earlier, Police hired their grounds to schools to play their
fixtures.
With the increase of the schools tournament fixtures, there are many
difficulties faced in hiring as most of the time the venue is booked.
Therefore, most schools have a tight schedule to accommodate their
fixtures.
The Police grounds have a matting wicket and the schools avoid this
as all cricket centre wickets are turf. Trinity College International
Stadium is now the only venue used by most of the schools for
convenience, easy access and nominal charges. Some time ago, the
Peradeniya University grounds were also used, but later several
restrictions made it difficult for booking.
The time has come for all Kandy schools to get together and draw up
plans how best they can solve this difficulty about hiring grounds in
Kandy for Cricket matches.
Pallekele International Cricket Stadium is one of the newest cricket
stadiums in Sri Lanka and the newest in the city of Kandy. The stadium
was opened on November 27, 2009. The stadium is located about a
half-hour drive from Kandy.
The stadium was built by the State Engineering Corporation of Sri
Lanka and is designed along the lines of Super Sport Park in Centurion,
South Africa. The project was initiated by Lakshman Kiriella when he was
the Sports Minister and the finish was done by Minister Mahindananda
Aluthgamage.
The Pallekele Stadium is wholly owned by Sri Lanka Cricket and is set
to displace the Trinity College, Stadium, which has hosted Tests, one
days from 1983 to 2007, as the international venue of choice around
Kandy. Before we were granted Test Status, overseas teams when they
visited the hills, played at the Trinity College Stadium.
Sri Lanka Cricket, fearing that club cricket alone would not be
enough to keep Sri Lankan cricket competitive, the Inter-Provincial
Cricket Tournament was created as a domestic first-class cricket
tournament in Sri Lanka in 1990.
From the inauguration of the tournament in 1990, participating teams
varied from year to year.
The tournament started with four provincial teams. They were Western
Province, Southern Province, North Western Province and Kandurata.
With the Provincial Tournaments also being active, the need for
additional venues is becoming more and more a necessity! |
