Dialog Axiata powers ‘Youth 19 Schools Cricket’

The second round of Sri Lanka’s premier schools cricket tournament, the ‘Dialog Youth 19 Trophy’ which will be powered by Dialog Axiata PLC will get underway on March 10, 2012 in Colombo. This year’s limited over tournament will attract over 220 teams making it one of the largest cricketing events held in the country.    

32 of the 223 teams participating in the tournament will qualify for the second round. The semi finals will be worked out in March, while the grand finals will be played in April, 2012.

The top 32 teams of the championship will battle out for the ‘Dialog Youth 19 Trophy’ Schools Tournament played in coloured clothing and white ball. The tournament is organized by the Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association in partnership with Masscom (Pvt) Limited, the event management company that exclusively promotes and develops schools cricket tournaments throughout the Island. 

 “We are very appreciative of the opportunity granted to us by the Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association and Masscom, to be a partner in this prestigious tournament which will no doubt be a platform for the identification and development of emerging talent,” said Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya, Group Chief Executive Officer, Dialog Axiata PLC.

In addition to the 50/50 limited over’s tournament, the top 16 teams of the league will also be invited to play a T20 tournament in a new draw to make schools cricket exciting and draw in crowds. The finals of the T20 tournament will be played on April 08, 2012.

Due to the fast pace action T20 has taken the cricket world by storm with the introduction of the multimillion dollar IPL (Indian Premier League) franchise that has attracted both Indian and world players.

The ‘Dialog Youth 19 Schools Cricket’ is expected to open up a plethora of opportunities for young talent who have displayed outstanding cricketing skills from all forms of the game at a very young age.   

“T20 has become the dawn of a new era in world cricket and Sri Lanka is no exception to the hype,” Thilanga Sumathipala, Founder of Masscom (Pvt) Limited said. “It is best that we collaborate with our Schools Cricket structure to produce the best schools T/20 cricket with a flavour of professionalism and an immaculately designed tournament structure in order to give you the best of exciting youth cricket.”

Dialog Axiata is Sri Lanka’s largest mobile service provider with the greatest number of subscribers and a growing base of over 2,000 GSM and 1,200 3G base stations.