Red Bull Campus Cricket World Finals kicks off today

By David Ebert

The Red Bull Campus Cricket World T20 Finals 2013 kicks off today at the R. Premadasa stadium with six teams vying for the championship trophy and the title of the world’s best university cricket team.

The six teams battling it out for the title include the hosts Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Great Britain, Australia and Bangladesh. Divided into two groups that were decided in a bowl-out on a mini pitch at the Mount Lavinia beach, they will consist of India, Australia and Pakistan in Group A, while Group B would consist of Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Great Britain.

Starting today, the tournament is structured around round-robin games that lead to a semi-final and culminates in a grand finale on 6 April, which would decide this year’s champions.

Representing Sri Lankan this time around are the Mora Sharks from the University of Moratuwa, the current local campus cricket champions led by Sahan Perera and mentored by the Sri Lankan T20 captain Dinesh Chandimal.

“I have been a part of Red Bull Campus Cricket for a year now and I’m proud to see how far it’s grown. The potential of this event for harnessing young local talent and giving them a chance to showcase their skill is phenomenal. Sahan is a personal friend of mine and I’ll be cheering for the Mora Sharks throughout,” Chandimal stated.

All teams will similarly have ex national players mentoring them throughout the tournament and the captains expressed enthusiasm about playing on an international standard ground under lights and with international standards being followed in terms of the facilities and rules.

Red Bull Campus Cricket Tournament Brendon Kuruppu stated that he looked forward to having more participation from all the other ICC cricketing nations as well as non ICC countries in future tournaments, with the format being kept open to all university teams from cricket-playing countries.

The action kicks off at 9 a.m. with the opening game between Australia and India followed by the host’s first game against Bangladesh at 12:30 p.m. Admission will be free to all.

Pic by Lasantha Kumara