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More than 600 Junior cricket teams in the fray
More than 600 Junior- cricket teams will battle it out for supremacy in the Under 14 and Under 16 Tournaments conducted by the Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association (SLSCA) in the 2004 season. Unilever Ceylon Ltd under the "Astra" banner will be sponsoring the Tournament for the second successive season.

Last year, Unilever Ceylon spent Rs 3.5 million and this year the company has sponsored the Tournament to the tune of Rs 4.7 million. Speaking on the occasion of the sponsorship, President of the Schools SLSCA, R.D.M.P.Weeratunga the principal of Thurstan College, said that last year there were 1600 matches played in Junior cricket.

"Junior cricket is the cradle of school cricket" emphasized the President. Already the Under 16 Tournament for this season has begun and the Under 14 will start in the first week of June.

B.S.Perera, Secretary, SLSCA, said that last year they had the 60-40 system of play, where the side who won the toss and decided to bat batted the first 60 overs and then gave it over to the other side to face the remaining 40 overs. A minimum of 6 and- a -half- hours and 100 overs had to be played during the day. This year the game format will be changed and the team winning the toss if they decide to bat first will dictate terms in the game. The Tournament Committee decided that this was best even though there would be a number of no-decisions in games. The Competition at this level was intense and the competitiveness was high so that a number of matches resulted in a no decision. The Tournament Committee decided to amend the points system and more points were now being allocated for wickets taken, thereby encouraging teams to take more wickets and bowl the opposition out, thus resulting in a win.

Vice President. Sri Lanka Cricket, Aravinda de Silva said that speaking from experience he could say that Junior cricket helps mould one into an international cricketer. "This year the rules had been restructured in order to eliminate negative play." explained de Silva.

This year too, as was the case last year, there will be teams from the North and East. There are a number of schools that are facing hardship as regards grounds, cricket equipment, paying umpires fees. The sponsorship of Unilevers goes a long way towards relieving the burdens faced by the SLSCA. This year 260 teams will vie for honours in the Under 16 category while about 340 teams will pit their wits in the Under 14 category.

Last year two outstanding cricketers who did well at junior level, Angelo Matthews (St. Joseph's) won the award for the Most Outstanding Cricketer-Under 16 and runner up Dimitri Siriwardene (Royal College) performed well at junior level. These are the budding cricketers of the future. In addition to the Tournaments, Astra will also conduct nutrition programmes in schools in all parts of the island.

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