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Sri Lankan Cricket League – United Arab Emirates
Singha CC the defending Champions and winner of the SLCL title twice will take on Ceylon Lions in the Grand Finals of the 03rd season of Sri Lankan Cricket League T 20 league on this Friday 13th November in Sharjah. Both teams are well represented and expect a thriller with Singha CC being led by Kaveen Amarasinghe while Ceylon Lions being led by Ajmalsha Nazeem. Apart from the Championship Trophy for the winner, Runner-up will also get a trophy and also a trophy for the team which upheld the Spirit of the Game right throughout the League ‘Fair Play Award’. There will be a host of other trophies on offer, including
Man of the Finals
Man of the Series
Leading Run Scorer
Leading Wicket taker
SLCL Master Blaster
Best Wicket Keeper
This year, there were six teams who competed. Namely Singha CC, Ceylon Lions, Lankan Eagles, SL Warriors, Sri Lankan CC, and Reborn CC. Many young expatriates in UAE, most of them who have represented their schools back home took part in this gala T 20 Cricket League.
The ‘Sri Lankan Cricket League’ (SLCL) which is a reputed, major event organizing body which was established in the year 2017 in the Pearl of the Gulf, Dubai (United Arab Emirates) was born out of a simple idea by two highly spirited individuals and long term residents of the UAE, Manju Abeysekera and Suranga Perera.
The SLCL’s primary aim is to foster love of the ‘Gentleman’s game’ and to showcase the skills & talents of passionate Sri Lankan cricketers residing in the UAE.
Their aim is to create a division of Sri Lankan cricket in the UAE, by selecting the best of the best Sri Lankan cricketers to participate in major cricket leagues by the year 2021. From an idea to a reality they have conducted and completed highly successful events through this journey to-date as follows;
SLCL T20 Cricket League 2017 – Season I
SLCL UAE 6’s 2018
SLCL T20 Cricket league 2019 – Season II
As it turned out, the idea was a popular one…
According to SLCL press release, they are the pioneers to implement standout competitive tournaments for Sri Lankan nationals residing across the Middle East Region and continue to remain as the only organization to do so. Their tournaments comprises hard-ball turf cricket played at high quality grounds, a qualified panel of umpires & match referees, online scoring, ICC standard rules, entertainment and especially the spirit of the game. As stated by Manju Abeysekara “Game changers, Yes WE ARE and we have successfully shifted the widely played “cement cricket” in to “turf cricket” for most of the Sri Lankan cricket teams in UAE. This has influenced many Sri Lankan Schools Old Boys Unions to organize the famous ‘Big Match’ season in the UAE too”.
Lead by example, making history.
Further SLCL extensively providing voluntarily support in managing Sri Lankan school ‘Big match’ seasons in UAE since their establishment. Adding another wing to SLCL, they have diversified into sports tour arrangements from December, 2019 and successfully administered the UAE tour of the CCC School of cricket’s Under 13 & Under 15 teams under the guidance of veteran & respected coach Mr. Nelson Mendis, which made history as the first ever Sri Lankan school/club level team to visit UAE.
Pursuing dreams,
Manjula added “Driven by our SLCL Theme “One Nation… Playing with Spirit” we are headed towards the finals of our much awaited fourth event ‘SLCL T20 Cricket League – Season III’ under the SLCL banner with much enthusiasm & excitement, commenced on 23rd October with the finals to be held at JMR Sporting Club – Sharjah on 13th November”.
This will be another success story for SLCL which is held during a testing period for all. Nevertheless six dynamic Sri Lankan Cricket clubs were vying for glory with excitement and flamboyance, displaying the Sri Lankan brand of cricket of which two made it to the Grand Finals. Who will walk away with the Trophy this year?
Squads for the Finals:
Singha CC – Kaveen Amarasinghe (Captain), Dylan George (Vice Captain), Jude Perera, Bruce Fernando, Srinath Perera, Mohamed Amjath, Mohamed Sihan, Sujath Wijesekara, Kavindu Thushan, Vignesh Selvaratnam, Dhanuka Chamikara, RyanDe Almeida, Shahsee Krishan, Chathura Deshapriya, Shanid Sathar, Abdullah Razak and Prashan Bala.
Ceylon Lions – Ajmalsha Nazeem (Captain), Isitha Croos (Vice Captain), Dhammika Sri Ranawaka, Charith Nirmal, Tharuka Nadeeshan, Sumudu Fernando, Shazlan Ahamed, Mohamed Faizan, Shamal Udawatta, Mohamed Shiyam, Kevin Gehan, Premshankar Vartharaj, Oshan Lakshitha, Nishantha Sembanayake, Charith Bhashika and Abuthahir Mohamed.
Following are the rest of the teams which took part in its year’s SLCL T20 League:
