Tape ball cricket catches up in Central Province

by S.M. Jiffrey ABDEEN - Kandy Sports Corr.

Tape ball cricket will be the fore runner to hard ball cricket and this will be introduced on a large-scale to the ladies' said the Manager loading Sri Lanka Cricket Malcolm Perera.

He made these observations when tape ball cricket was introduced for the first time to ladies cricket terms in the districts of Kandy, Kegalle and Nuwara Eliya at the Pallekelle International Cricket Stadium.

Perera said that cricket is fast catching up in both urban and rural areas. Very often we see girls teaming up with boys in playing cricket even in the roads and in all parts of the country.

He said all this points out to prove that there is a lot of enthusiasm in playing the game but they have less opportunities in towns some of the schools have soft-ball cricket while some have progresses to leather ball cricket. It is to harness all these talents that Sri Lanka Cricket under the chairmanship of D. Somachandra de Silva has decided to introduce tape ball cricket which is very popular in Pakistan.

Perera also said once the ladies had grasped the fundamentals, they will be introduced to the next stage which is leather ball cricket.

The first match of the triangular tournament was played in which Nuwara Eliya District with less amenities sprang a supervise by defeating Kandy District by 62 runs.

Nuwara Eliya District: 152 all out in 15 overs (K.V. Nirasha 14, F.S. Ayesha 16, S. Janet 16, S. Anardi 26, Sagaya Rani 26, S. Ishari 2 for 24, N. Cahturika 3 for 34, N. Nimesha 3 for 22).

Kandy District: 90 all out in 12 overs (Ishari Samarakoon 25, M. Nirosha 3 for 18, S. Janet 3 for 11).