Lemonade pleased, renews U-17 support

Sumathipala spells formula for young cricketers

Discipline, commitment and ability to face challenges are the traits young school cricketers should strive to achieve, parliamentarian Thilanga Sumathipala said.
He said so during the launch of the ‘Lemonade Super 17’ school cricket tournament for this year, which was held at Sumathi Court Bambalapitiya on Thursday.
“Nowhere in the world there’s structured school cricket like we find in Sri Lanka,” Sumathipala said.
Speaking to a group of young cricketers he said: “I want you to walk into the middle of the national team soon.”
Ceylon Cold Stores, the producers of Elephant Lemonade, marked the third year of its sponsorship to the age group cricket tournament. And its association with Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association (SLSCA) was made possible by MassCom, an event management company, of which Sumathipala is the managing director.
Talking about their union three years ago Sumathipala said they wanted to bring a professional approach to school cricket and convert young players into matured and professional players.
Chandima Perera, Head of Beverages, Ceylon Cold Stores, said as sponsors his company was quite pleased to renew their support for school cricket.
“We see a tremendous improvement (in the tournament) from what we started three years back. As a truly local company what we were looking for was to create a platform for our young cricketers in international level. Some young cricketers have already reached that and we are pleased.”
Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association President and Principal of Prince of Wales College, Rohana Karunaratne said this year some 24 new teams are joining the tournament. Seventy-eight teams in Division I, 36 teams in Division II and 175 in Division III will be seen in action.
The ‘Lemonade Super 17’ got underway last Sunday and is expected to finish end August.