MCA ‘G’ Division Over-25 league tournament on 13 and 14 May

Stafford Motor Ltd. MD/COO Charaka Perera (third from left) handing over the 

sponsorship cheque to MCA President Niran Mahawatte (third from right). Others 

present (from left) Marketing Senior Executive Ruveendra Fernando and Deputy General Manager Damitha Jayasundara (both from Stafford Motor Ltd.), General Secretary 

Nalin Wickremesinghe and Tournament Committee Secretry Tarindra Kaluperuma 

(both from MCA)

The MCA ‘G’ Division Over-25 league tournament, the last of the main tournaments on the 2017 MCA calendar sponsored by Stafford Motor Ltd. for the seventh successive year which is contested for the Honda Trophy, will kick off during the weekend immediately after Vesak on 13 and 14 May.

A record number of teams amounting to 52 will vie for the glittering Honda Trophy, including six newcomers to mercantile cricket namely Pyramid Wilmer, MD Gunasena, JAT Holdings, BPO Connect, VS Information and Waters Edge. 

The 52 teams were pooled into eight groups as per the draw held at the Captains and Secretaries briefing on22 March at the MCA. They are as follows. 

Group ‘A’ (six teams): Alliance Finance, Asiri Hospitals, Coats Thread Lanka, GlaxoSmithKline, Group M Media and Maliban Biscuits.

Group ‘B’ (seven teams):  ACL Cables, First Choice, PABC Bank ‘C’, Polytex Garments, Pyramid Wilmar, Singer Sri Lanka ‘B’ and The Tea and Herbs.

Group ‘C’ (seven teams): Commercial Credit ‘C’, Deutsche Bank, DIMO ‘B’, Kelani Cables, MD Gunasena, Wurth Lanka and Union Assurance.

Group ‘D’ (seven teams): Avian Technologies, JAT Holdings, Mobitel ‘B’, Pearson Lanka, Sri Lanka Telecom, ShipXpress and SriLankan Airlines.

Group ‘E’ (six teams): A Baur & Co, DPMC ‘B’, MAS Active ‘D’, Fair First Insurance, CIC Holdings and Aitken Spence Group. 

Group ‘F’ (six teams): Interpharm, Micro Holdings, MillenniumIT, Nor Lanka, RR Donnelley and The Finance Company.

Group ‘G’ (six teams): Cargills Bank, Coca-Cola Beverages, Courtaulds Clothing, HNB Assurance, Jetwing Travels and PEAK Colombo.

Group ‘H’ (seven teams): Avery Dennison, BPO Connect, CEAT Kelani, HNB ‘B’, Laugfs Holdings, VS Information and Waters Edge.

The tournament will consist of 159 half-day matches including the final which will be conducted in two stages – the league and knockout segments. 

The league stage, consisting of 144 matches, will be played from 14 May to 25 June. The knockout stage, consisting of 15 matches, will be on 1 July (pre-quarterfinal), 2 July (quarterfinal), 9 July (quarterfinal), 15 July (semi-final) and 22 July (final).

The selected venues will be MCA, St. John’s Panadura, Veyangoda Central, Wesley College, Campbell Park, St. Sebastian’s Moratuwa, St. Benedict’s Kotahena, Prince of Wales, Moratuwa, Thurstan College and Army Mattegoda. 

Player Control Team (PCT): The MCA has appointed match referees for the whole of the tournament. The officiating umpires are assigned by the Association of Cricket Umpires (ACU) and the officiating scorers are assigned by the Association of Sri Lanka Scorers. For the first time in the tournament, the Duckworth and Lewis method will be used for interrupted matches to arrive at a decision. 

The official ball, which will be Grays of Cambridge Pakistan ‘Avenger’ Ball, was directly imported by the MCA from Pakistan bearing the MCA logo. 

Special Awards: Best Batsman, Best Bowler, Man of the Series and Man of the Final. 

Flashback to 2016 

In the previous tournament the sponsor, Stafford Motor Ltd, lifted their own trophy, beating Palliyaguruge Group by eight wickets in the final played on 27 August 20116 at the MCA grounds.

The sponsorship handover ceremony and media conference was held on Wednesday, 3 May at the MCA fine-dining restaurant at 6.30 p.m.

Those associated with the event were Stafford Motor Company Ltd. Director/Chief Operations Officer Charaka Perera, who handed over the sponsorship package to MCA President Niran Mahawatte. Also present were Deputy General Manager Damitha Jayasundara and Marketing Senior Executive Ruveendra Fernando (both from Stafford Motor Company Ltd.), General Secretary Nalin Wickremesinghe and Tournament Committee Secretary Tarindra Kaluperuma (both from MCA).