Sri Lanka’s Mini World Cup gathers pace

Sri Lanka’s Mini World Cup gathers pace

Yatiyana Cricket Club along with Matugama Cricket Club fought off competition from 121 teams to be crowned winners and runners up respectively in the Colombo leg of the Mini Cricket World Cup at St. Peter’s College ground Bambalapitiya last Saturday.

The two teams will play against teams that qualified from the first and second legs in a bid to emerge champs and play against members of the Sri Lanka team that won the World Cup in 1996.

The whole exercise is a promotion of the 2011 World Cup.

Given the large number of teams that participated organizers decided that the third and fourth place teams Borella SC and Rattanapitiya X1 would also qualify for the grand finals.

The Mini Cricket World Cup knock-out, six-a-side, soft ball tournament is just one part of a number of promotional activities undertaken by the ICC in the lead up to the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011.

Saturday’s event was graced by several entertainment celebrities and World Cup Tournament Director, Suraj Dandeniya said the response was encouraging, “Sri Lanka has been blessed with the opportunity to host the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 and the new stadia and facilities that will be in place will not only ensure a fun and exciting tournament, but will also serve as a spring board for both urban and rural cricketing talent to leap onto the national stage.”

The first leg of this tournament was held in Hambantota where Galle United and Deberawewa SC qualified.  Kandy played host to the second leg that witnessed Katugastota SC and Slimline Pannala enter the final round.

The Grand Finals will witness the winning teams of the first three legs (Hambantota, Kandy and Colombo) facing up to each other in Colombo, on January 8, 2011 at the Sport’s Ministry Ground at Torrington with the eventual winner taking on a team comprising veterans of Sri Lanka’s 1996 World Cup winning team.