Zahira College PCA Cricket Extravaganza on Sunday

The Past First XI Cricketers’ Association (PCA) of Zahira College will host its annual Cricket Extravaganza on 20 August at the college grounds in Maradana. This is the third consecutive occasion the PCA is holding the tournament according to its President Mazhar Zuhair.

Zuhair is confident that the PCA could support Zahira College to reignite its cricket standards as in the mid 1980s and 1990s when the school was regularly featured amongst the top ranks in the island. In the recent past, though Zahira often produced an outstanding player every now and then, it has somehow not been able to click back to their winning ways according to him.

“Our objective in organising this event for the third consecutive year is to bring together all the past cricketers and align their support to strengthen and elevate the standard of college cricket to be amongst the best in Sri Lanka. We have set a timeline of five years for this vision which will be a benchmark thereafter hopefully,” stated Zuhair.

Considering the overwhelming success PCA had during the last couple of years with 12 teams comprising 120 elite talented players representing a wide age group, the organising committee has decided to increase the number of teams to 16. This will enable more than 160 players to participate in a go.

Each team that is featured in the tournament will field players per side during a match where there will be a round robin stage when the competition begins on 20 August at 8.30 a.m. Teams will be grouped and according to their outcomes teams will be listed to the next stage which will be played as knockouts under cup and plate segments.

Project Chairman Ershard Rashmishbah, who captained the college First XI team in 2003, is thrilled with the support and encouragement he has been receiving from the organising committee and from members and especially from sponsors. Mobil Lubricants of McLaren’s Group are the principal sponsors while Home Depot and EFL are the co-sponsors of the event for this year.

The PCA has also received tremendous support and guidance from the Principal Trzviiy Marikkar and its Sports Council headed by M.S. Mazeer. The PCA, founded in 2015, is the representative body of past cricketers of Zahira College. At present it has more than 300 members based in Sri Lanka and overseas.