Icbt Wins Red Bull Campus Cricket 2015
The skipper of the winning team receives the trophy from Sri Lanka Cricketer Lahiru Thirimanne
After months of exceptional cricket, ICBT emerged victorious as the Red Bull Campus Cricket (RBCC) 2015 Champions. The thrilling National Final was held between ICBT and Kotelawala Defence University at the Thurstan College Grounds on Tuesday 15 September. ICBT will now progress onto the global stage where they will represent Sri Lanka at the RBCC World Finals in India next month.
After the unique “bowl-out” draw held in April, ICBT moved directly into the Quarter Finals as they were given a bye due to being the defending champions of the tournament. The four months of training prior to the Quarter Finals then paid off after a victory over BMS which saw them through to the Semi-Finals with a small margin of victory. Finally, after a nail-biting finish against NSBM, Team ICBT advanced to the National Finals, hungry for one more victory that they have now rightly earned.
Now in its fourth successful year, RBCC fuels the passions of young Sri Lankan cricketers and is bigger than ever before. RBCC is an annual knockout tournament that brings the best of campus cricket from 170 universities across Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka and the UAE, with each team representing the best university cricket teams who have been crowned the National Champions in their respective countries.Malshan Mendis, Captain of ICBT said, “It’s been a long journey, but we’ve finally made it. Over the past few months, we’ve learned a lot of lessons both on and off the pitch and now it’s time to put everything we’ve learned to the test. We are excited and extremely proud to be representing Sri Lanka at the World Finals next month. We are thankful to Red Bull for
the opportunity to represent our country, and will give it our best shot when we’re out there against the rest of the world.”
RBCC Tournament Director, Brendon Kuruppu also went on to state that, “Once again, Red Bull has tapped into the powerful passion of Sri Lankan cricket and produced an outstanding platform for our young guns to shine. The future of Sri Lankan cricket looks bright. This
year’s tournament saw some great talent and will undoubtedly be a force to reckon with onthe world stage.”
Batsman.com, the Official Statistics Partner for RBCC 2015, also awarded the People’s Choice Trophy to O.M. Vidyaratne from the Kotelawala Defence University, who garnered the most votes by fans on the website over the course of the tournament. His prize will include an all expense trip to witness Sri Lanka’s first match in the T20 World Cup in India.
