Coca-Cola Cricket Pathway felicitates promising cricketers

Coca-Cola Sri Lanka hosted the very first Coca-Cola Cricket Pathway Felicitation Ceremony to recognise the young cricketers from the 2012 cricket camps. These cricketers have shown exceptional talent and temperament and therefore hold promise for the future.

The Coca-Cola Cricket Pathway is a series of camps organised by the company in partnership with the Aravinda de Silva Cricket Foundation and Sri Lanka Cricket. The aim of the camps is to discover grassroots cricketing talent from amongst the youth in Sri Lanka’s rural and regional areas and groom them to play in the Sri Lankan national team.

Cricketing legends, Aravinda de Silva, Roshan Mahanama, Chaminda Vaas, Upul Chandana, Nuwan Zoysa, attended the event, along with officials from Sri Lanka Cricket Board. Also present were district and regional coaches of Sri Lanka. Akila Dananjaya, a player from the recent T-20 World Cup, who was discovered through the Pathway camps, was also awarded for serving his country in the shortest format of the game. He was discovered by the Coca-Cola Cricket Pathway initiative last year.

Abhishek Jugran, Country Manager, Sri Lanka and Maldives, Coca-Cola Far East Ltd. commented, “The Coca-Cola Cricket Pathway camps are part of the company’s efforts to encourage and promote cricketing talent amongst Sri Lankan youth at the grassroots level. Coca-Cola believes in promoting a healthy active lifestyles and this initiative also encourages students to be physically active and make fitness apart of their daily routines.  The camps provide an intense learning experience for all participants to help them improve their cricketing skills and further develop themselves as Sri Lanka’s future cricketers. We are very grateful to everyone who has helped us in this journey and thank them for their continuous support.

The Coca-Cola Cricket Pathway initiative discovers promising talent from across the country and provides them with the necessary skills and training to realise their true potential. This year, the camps have been conducted in Colombo, Jaffna, Moratuwa and Matara with players from various Provinces participating in the camps. To ensure all-round development, participants of each cricket camp are trained in both the practical and technical aspects of the game and subjected to rigorous training sessions over three days.

Kapila Welmillage, Country Manager, Coca-Cola Beverages Sri Lanka Limited, said: “The Coca-Cola Cricket Pathway initiative has been a success in terms of discovering talent for the Sri Lanka National Cricket teams.  23 players from the Coca-Cola Cricket Pathway Camps have gone on to play for the Sri Lankan National Under 19 team, and Akila Dananjaya, a player in the recent T20 World Cup, was also discovered through these camps. The Award night is a platform for us to thank all our partners for their continuous support and guidance. We are committed to make this initiative bigger and better with each passing year for the students, and hope that more partners will join us in this endeavor.”

Coca-Cola Cricket Pathway Season 3 commenced in May 2012 with the four training camps conducted in Colombo, Jaffna, Moratuwa, and Matara respectively, with provinces from across Sri Lanka, coming together for the grand finale – the Coca-Cola Cricket Pathway Super Camp in Colombo. The initiative that began in 2008, has trained over 1200 budding young cricketers, from 392 cricket playing schools, across all 25 districts of Sri Lanka so far.