SLC U-19 Provincial Tourney concept prioritising cream of schoolboy talent

Prioritizing Under-19 cricketers is one of Sri Lanka Cricket’s (SLC) top drawer initiatives in recognizing school cricket as the stepping stone cradle to driving national cricket at large. Accordingly, the accent is on the annual Under-19 Provincial Limited Overs Tournament at its grassroots level aimed at creating a pathway to fine-combing exceptional schoolboy latent talent.

The bottom-line of this cricket take drawing in to one basket the cream of culminating teenage talent is aimed at enabling exceptional school cricketers to graduate up the ladder to the next levels; a comprehensive concept to sustaining the feed to mainstream national cricket. SLC’s immediate priority by this programme would be to identifying and developing high performance players to represent Sri Lanka at the 2018 Under-19 World Cup to be held in New Zealand.

It is in such a broad based upswing momentum of the need to pit such talent in top grade competitive domestic tournaments that the 2017 Under-19 Provincial Limited Overs Tournament takes pride of place. In that perspective, the ongoing provincial tournament took off this week on Monday April 24 is an important segment of SLC’s school cricket concept. SLC has accordingly, set up the entire gamut to facilitate it to international stature. It covers match officials, logistical support, accommodation and all other arrangements by SLC. A particular boon to these players with accent on the rural cricketers is the expert support staff to each team from team manager to coach and physio with all training and gym facilities at hand. The Under-19 tournament includes one day and three day matches with the one day matches scheduled from April 24 to May 6. In the three-day tournament, the four major provincial teams will be in the fray for honours with matches to be played from May 12 to May 28.