We have given the lead for other sports to follow: TC Chief

• Happy with progress of cricket after COVID-19; no decision yet on Tier B

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Sri Lanka Cricket’s Tournament Committee is happy at the way things have panned out on the opening weekend of matches in the Premier Super Eight and Premier Plate tournaments.

SLC Tournament Committee Chairman Bandula Dissanayake

“Everything went smoothly and according to plan and there were no issues. Quite satisfied the way the players and officials adhered to the health guidelines. There was no problems at all and no complaints from any party,” was how SLC Tournament Committee Chairman Bandula Dissanayake described the first weekend of cricket after a five-month shut down due to COVID-19.

Seven matches (four in the Super Eight and three in the Plate) were played across seven venues in the country. The venues were picked by SLC which received the health certificates for each of them from the Public Health Inspectors.

“By playing this tournament cricket has sort of given the lead for other sports to follow,” said Dissanayake.

“I don’t know about the contact sports but team sports similar to cricket like hockey and football can be played. If it is organised well, then it is not difficult to adhere to the health regulations,” he said.

Apart from cricket, the Vantage FFSL President’s Cup soccer tournament is currently being played at the Sugathadasa Stadium and Racecourse grounds.

Meanwhile, a decision has yet to be taken by the Tournament Committee whether to play the Premier Tier B matches. The issue is that the venues the matches are to be played are not decided by SLC but by the clubs hosting the matches. 

“With these health guidelines it might be a bit difficult to play matches as it going to be played all over the country,” said Dissanayake.

“We are waiting to see if there are any changes in the health guidelines. According to the current guidelines you’ve got to have an ambulance, doctor, sick room and all sorts of things. If it is our grounds we have a control over the matches. As it is the venues are not decided by SLC,” he said. “Anyway we haven’t ruled out playing the Tier B matches, we just want to wait and see.”

If the Tier B matches fail to take place the 2019-20 season is likely to end with the completion of the Super Eight and Plate matches that are in progress at the moment.

“Somewhere in the latter part of September we will begin the 2020-21 domestic season by playing the Youth Under 23 tournament,” said Dissanayake.