Young Aussie cricketers to play matches in Sri Lanka

“Plenty Valley Cricket Club, the home of turf cricket in the outer northern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria will shortly be undertaking their second youth development tour of Sri Lanka.

The squad comprising 12 players mostly 15 years old, two officials and six supporters will be arriving on Sunday, 10 April on a two week visit to play six games in Galle, Kandy and Colombo.

The tour is a brainchild of former Peterite cricketer of the early eighties Mario Roshitha Perera who plays and coaches at Plenty Valley Cricket Club. In June last year, the club undertook their inaugural development tour to Sri Lanka under their previous name “Bundoora Old Paradians Cricket Club“ and following it’s overwhelming success the club decided to make it an annual exercise to provide talented junior cricketers in the region with this unique opportunity.

The touring team will have the opportunity of playing at the Galle & Pallekelle international stadiums. There will be four 50 over games and two T20 games in the itinerary against a Galle District selection, Kandy Cricket Academy, Dharmaraja College Kandy, Lyceum International school & Royal College.

They will be led by Sri Lankan born all rounder Nishal Perera who represented Victoria Schools Under 15’s in the recently concluded Australian schools nationals held in Adelaide. This will be Nishal’s third cricket tour of Sri Lanka. Vice Captain Jack McLagan and Andrew Lamont are the other remaining players from the previous tour. Former Australian under 19 cricketer of the early seventies Ian Simpson who will be on his third visit to Sri Lanka will once again be the Team Director and Mario Roshitha Perera will function as the Tour Director.     

Plenty Valley cricket club field four mens’ teams in the Victoria Sub-Districts Cricket competition and two teams in the Victorian Womens Cricket Association competition. They also have teams in the under 13, 15 & 17 age groups with several of their leading players having been selected to represent district / regional elite teams.

The tour itinerary is as follows:

12 Apri  - vs Galle District Selection at Galle Stadium

17 April - vs Kandy Cricket Academy at Pallekelle Stadium

18 April - vs Dharmaraja College at Pallekelle Stadium

20 April - vs Lyceum International School at Wattala

21 April - vs Royal College at Reid Avenue