The seventh edition of the mercantile ‘C’ Division 50 over Cricket Tournament for the ‘BMW – Hyundai’ Trophy commenced yesterday with a new look. This year’s tournament has attracted 14 teams and will be grouped in to two named as Group ‘A’ and ‘B’. The tournament is sponsored by Prestige Automobile (Pvt.) Ltd. and Hyundai Lanka (Pvt.) Ltd. for the seventh consecutive year. These details were disclosed to the media at the Press briefing held at the MCA premises.
The new additions for the tournament introduce are the using of white balls with players wearing colored clothing for the first time in this division. This was done to be in line with the MCA Premier League for which the the fullest co-operation of all involved in this category. It was also noted that for ‘C’ Division matches which were played on matting wickets will are to be played on turf wicket s giving the opportunity for budding cricketers to get themselves used to play on turf wickets. This decision was taken by the Tournament Committee as the winner and runner up are promoted to higher division they can make use of their experience to the maximum when playing in a higher level.
The Tournament which got under way yesterday will conclude the League stage on February 28 and the final stage of the Tourney with quarter finals onwards will come to an end March 17with the final scheduled to be played at the MCA ground.
A total of 49 matches are set on the card with 42 League game s and 7 final round matches. These matches are to be played at Army grounds, Thurstan College ground, FTZ ground Katunayake, Moratuwa Stadium, Surrey ground , Maggona, Moors ground, BRC ground and MCA ground.
BMW – Hyundai Special Awards on offer are Best Batsman, Best Bowler and Player of the series.
Teams participating are:
Group ‘A’ – Citizens Development Finance, Commerciasl Leasing & Finance, Stafford Motor Co., Kanrich Finance ‘B’, Peoples Leasing & Finanace, Colombo Dockyard and Standard Chartered Bank.
Group ‘B’ – Commercial Bank, J.L Morrison Son & jones, Heshan Flexi Packaging, Pyramid Wilmer Nations Trust Bank ‘A’ Soft Logic Holdings and PABC Bank.