Top cricketers in action at inter-provincial tournament

By Chris Dhambarage

The cream of the Sri Lanka Test and one day players will be seen in action when the new look Sri Lanka Cricket organized inter-provincial limited overs cricket tournament gets underway in Colombo and in the outstations on December 29. North Western Province will take on Western Province B team in the curtain raiser match under lights at the R. Premadasa Stadium with the final scheduled for January 13 at the same venue.

The five teams competing in this tournament are Central Province, North Western Province, Southern Province, Western Province A and Western Province B. There will be five day night matches and six day matches and the venues for the fixtures will be the R. Premadasa Stadium, De Soysa Stadium Moratuwa, Welagedera Stadium in Kurunegala, Galle Stadium and the Pallekelle Stadium in Kandy.

Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardena will lead the strong North Western Province team which also includes national players Michael van Dort, Jehan Mubarak, Farveez Maharoof and Kaushal Lokuarachchi. Left-hander Kumar Sangakkara will captain the Central Province team which is studded with the presence of ace spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, Chamara Kapugedera, Thilan Samaraweera and Kaushalya Weeraratne.

Veteran fast bowler Chaminda Vaas will be in charge of the Western Province North team and the other senior players in the side are opener Avishka Gunawardena, Thilina Kandamby, Angelo Mathews, Gayan Wijekoon and Muthumudalige Pushpakumara. Dashing middle order batsman Tillekeratne Dilshan will captain the Western Province South team which also includes national players Chamara Silva, Prasanna Jayawardena, Nuwan Zoysa, Malinga Bandara and Hasantha Fernando.

Veteran all rounder Sanath Jayasuriya who recently retired from test cricket will captain the Ruhuna team with Upul Tharanga, Indika de Saram and Anil Rideegammanagedera also in the line up. All players will be contracted by SLC and each team will have a full time coach/physio/manager and will be assigned a national selector.

The winners of this tournament will receive a cash award of Rs. 2.5 million and the runners up will take away Rs. one million. The player of the tournament will receive Rs. 100,000 and the player of the final will receive Rs. 50,000. In addition the man of the match during the league tournament will receive Rs. 10,000 each and all players including reserves will receive Rs. 6000 per match day.

Sri Lanka Telecom will be the title sponsor of this event and the other corporate sponsors for each team are E Wis (Western Province North), Lexmark (Western Province South), Hidramani (Southern Province), Lanka Bell (North Western Province) and MAS Holdings (Central Province).

The tournament fixtures: December 29: North Western Province v Western Province B at R. Premadasa Stadium (d/n), December 30: Southern Province v Western Province A at the Galle Stadium, January 2: Central Province v Western Province B at SSC ground, North Western Province v Western Province A at R. Premadasa Stadium (d/n), January 5: Central Province v Western Province A at R. Premadasa Stadium (d/n), North Western Province v Central Province at Welagedera Stadium, January 8: Central Province v Southern Province at R. Premadasa Stadium (d/n), Western Province A v Western Province B at SSC ground, January 11: Central Province v North Western Province at Welagedera Stadium, Southern Province v Western Province B at Galle Stadium, January 13: Final at R. Premadasa Stadium (d/n).