SLC goes north and east for new cricket talent

PTI: Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is to conduct a talent search for potential youngsters from the former LTTE controlled regions in the north and the east. For two days next month, the SLC would run coaching camps and conduct a talent search for the under 14 to under 19 age categories in the northern capital of Jaffna.

There will also be programs for coaches and the schools’ masters in charge, a SLC release said. The Jaffna program will thereafter be repeated in the eastern provincial district of Batticaloa.

Cricket, the island’s most popular sport, was deprived to the north and eastern youth throughout the 30-year separatist war which devastated the north and east. The annual cricket match between Jaffna’s two leading schools, St John’s College and Central College was however continued throughout the conflict.

The north tasted high level cricket for the first time in decades when the Murali Cup games were staged last year – a T20 tournament for the under 19 teams from the regions as well as the leading school teams from the south.

Only very few Tamils have made it to the Sri Lankan national team since the country was admitted as a full member of the ICC in 1981. Muttiah Muralitharan, a Tamil of Indian origin from the hill country and Russell Arnold are those who made it big in the international arena.