by Reemus Fernando

The Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association (SLSCA) will commence schools cricket tournaments in November for the Under-19 and Under-14 age categories under a new format to suit newly stipulated conditions by the Ministry of Education and health authorities. With the Ministry of Education expected to give the ‘green light’ to commence schools sports soon the Executive Committee of the SLSCA finalised new formats for the two tournaments on Friday.

“We will commence an Under-19 and an Under-14 tournament under new formats. We made the request and expect that the Ministry of Education to give us the green light soon rather than later to commence schools cricket in November,” J.A.K.S. Indrajith, the secretary of the SLSCA told The Island.

Accordingly the limited overs format will be used for the Under-19 tournament where both the Division I and Division II teams will play in two tiers ‘A’ and ‘B’. The teams will be categorized in to tier ‘A’ and ‘B’ according to their standings of the last league tournament. The first 18 teams will be playing in tier ‘A’ and the last 18 in tier ‘B’.

Teams in both tier ‘A’ and ‘B’ will be divided in to two groups where they will play eight league matches. The winners and the runners up of each group will play a knockout stage in February 2021.

There are 64 teams in Division III. They will be divided in to eight groups.

All matches of the Under-19 and Under-14 tournaments will be played over the weekends.

“With the Ministry of Education giving priority to education during the last two terms we have been compelled to conduct matches only on Saturdays and Sundays. There will be no matches on Poya days and on Religious Holidays,” Indrajith said.

“Although the new format will be only for this season, the results of this Under-19 limited overs tournament will be considered in promoting and demoting teams in the year 2021. For this year there will be no demotions and promotions,” Indrajith detailed.

The first four matches of the Under-19 tournament have to be completed before December 31.

The SLSCA is also considering allowing schools to conduct several of their traditional matches of innings format. A final decision regarding this will be taken after the Fixture Meeting.

The Executive Committee has also decided to conduct an Under-14 tournament also during weekends from mid November.

The usual innings format will be used but these matches will be limited to six hours (three sessions of two hour duration) with the first innings limited to a maximum of 50 overs for both teams. There too teams will be divided into groups of eight and each team will play seven matches.

“There will be no knockout stage. The group champions will be awarded certificates to encourage them,” Indrajith said.

The Ministry of Education canceled all schools sports tournaments and competitions which were halted in March and directed Sports Associations not to recommence them. A circular to that effect was issued early this month.