Nadaraja Thangaraja played consistently good golf to retain the Sri Lanka Open Amateur Championship crown when he defeated Mohomad Dulal of Bangladesh 3 and 2 in the 36 hole final played at the Royal Colombo Golf course yesterday.

Defending champions N. Thangaraja continued on his winning way in his rain delayed quarter final clash against countryman Ranga starting quietly and finishing the match 2 andamp; 1 at the 125th Sri Lanka Amateur Open Golf Championship continued at the Ridgeway course yesterday.

With Havelocks winning the League tournament, and thereby earning the right to bring back the league title to the Park Club after 30 years, the league seasonandrsquo;s long whistle was blown over the league for 2012.

Sri Lanka cricketers Mahela Jayawardena and Kumar Sangakkara launched the 2012 Murali Harmony Cup yesterday by opening a newly-built venue in the northern town of Oddusuddan in Mullaitivu.

The showcase or the spectacle of the shortest form of the game the T-20 World Cup is just around the corner. The entire country reeling after a surfeit of cricket both international and domestic will naturally brace itself for the biggest event ever undertaken by SLC.

Sri Lanka yesterday picked a squad of 23 members minus five hardcore players from which the team for the Under-19 Rugby Asiad will be selected.

Twelve budding football players from various parts of the country had their dream come true when they were selected to form a special group picked from thousands of hopefuls to train at the Manchester United Schools Academy in England.

Sri Lankan golfer Tyronne Weerakkody secured a place to represent his country with the East Asian Team at the World Finals to be held in Stuttgart, Germany from September 13 to 18.

Singer will once more prop up the Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union (SLRFU) when they sponsor the Under 19 Junior Rugby Asiad Division II championship which will be worked off at Havelock Park from September 12 to 15 with four teams participating.

Cricket pitches in Sri Lanka have taken on a new look which could offer all teams a fair contest at the forthcoming World T-20 which starts on September 18.

The 7 provinces of Sri Lanka were granted Rs. 1 million each for the development of cricket in their respective areas.

Cricket World Cup fever will take a revolutionary turn in the country when the once killing fields of the north will stage what would be the International Cricket Councilandrsquo;s (ICC) first ever documented event where bats will replace guns at a forerunner to the World T-20 which is scheduled to begin in the south of Sri Lanka in two weeks time.

In competitive tests conducted by the Chinese International Wushu Federation recently for the selection of Internal Wushu Judges, M.M. Chanaka Sajith, Vijith Priyantha Edirisingha and Leshan Dayarathna who represented Sri Lanka, were fortunate enough to get through the tests and were promoted to the position of Internal Judges.

Little known Afghanistan will be making their first appearance at the 125th Sri Lanka Amateur Golf Championship that will begin today at the Ridgeways course.

John Keells Holdings lifted the inaugural SAP Invitational F15 Cricket Cup defeating Unichela in a nail biting final last week.

The first edition of the inaugural Sri Lankan Premier League (SLPL) came to an end in a rain curtained final at Colombo on August 31, with Uva Next taking the title after overcoming Nagenahira Nagas by 19 runs on the Duckworth-Lewis method.

The scene was the Colombo Oval, now the P. Sara Stadium. The date March 9, 1971 and the event- the 92nd Annual andlsquo;Battle of the Bluesandrsquo; between Royal and S. Thomasandrsquo;. Royal batting first had reached 110 when the first wicket of S.A. de Silva fell lbw to Ranil Abeynaike.

Leading golfers from India, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Pakistan and for the first time Afghanistan, will contest the 125th Sri Lanka Amateur Golf Championship, the worldandrsquo;s second oldest after the British Open, at the Ridgeways course in Colombo from September 4 to 9.

Trailing 7-12 in the first half Sri Lanka bounced back in the second half to retain the Bowl championship beating host Malaysia 19 (one goal and two tries) to 12 (one goal and one try) in the final as reigning champions Japan defended the Cup title for another term in the Asian Ranking Borneo Rugby Sevens tournament which concluded here yesterday at the Likas Stadium in Kota Kinablu, Malaysia.

Sri Lankaandrsquo;s most promising young squash player Mihiliya Methsarani produced another exciting performance to win the gold medal at the fourth Indian Junior Squash Championship held in Chennai recently.

A last ditch try in the dying seconds of the game by Chinese Taipei closed the door for Sri Lanka in the Cup quarter final here at the Asian Ranking Borneo Rugby Sevens worked off at the Likas Stadium, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia yesterday.

Priyantha Ekanayake, the first rugby player from St. Anthonyandrsquo;s College to captain his country, is eyeing a role to resurrect the fortunes of his school team which failed to win a single match at the concluded league season.

Sports Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage has ruled out an election of office-bearers to Sri Lanka as he gave the green light to the current administration for a four-year term for what he called the success of the Sri Lanka Premier League which concluded on Friday.

The wash off of the second semi final in the SLPL was an absolute shame after the enormously unforgettable first semi final.

Two of the most hardworking teams at the SLPL, Nagenahira Nagas and Uva Next will battle it out in the SLPL final scheduled to be worked off today at the Premadasa stadium.

Kumar Sangakkara was on Thursday nominated in four categories for the International Cricket Council awards, including player of the year.

Sri Lanka is sending a seven-member team to compete in the Paralympic Games in London. They are determined to win the first ever Paralympic medal for the country, but say their effort is being hampered by a lack of official support.

Malaysia threatened to spoil what has been Sri Lankaandrsquo;s party so far with an excellent performance but the host held their nerve to claim a close 67 to 58 points win in the first semi-final of the eighth Asian Netball Championship at the Sugathadasa stadium last morning.

CCC School of Cricket under-13 A team registered an emphatic victory by 337 runs over Kangaroo Cricket Academy, Colombo in a MCA Invitation Junior Cricket tournament match played at Sri Jayewardenepura MV ground recently.

Fast bowlers Isuru Udana and Dilhara Fernando have questioned their omissions from the Sri Lanka squad for the T-20 World Cup by emerging as the second and third best bowlers in the on-going SLPL.