As an effort to strengthen the inter-relationship between the Architects in the region through cricket, the Sports Committee of Sri Lanka Institute of Architects has organized the “Architects’ Asia Cup Cricket Tournament 2018 (T20) which commenced on Friday and will conclude on February 20.
This is the first time that such an International Cricket Tournament is organized in Sri Lanka, where three major cricket playing countries in the region, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and India are taking part.
Preliminary round matches are being played at the Tyrone Fernando Cricket stadium and the finals will be played at Colts Cricket ground. Each team will play two matches with other two teams and the best two teams will compete in the finals.
The opening ceremony was held on Friday at the Tyronne Fernando Stadium where the chief guest was former Test captain Sri Lanka and leading left-arm bowler in Test cricket Rangana Herath.
The guest of honor was Eminent Architect, Archt. Mano Ponniah, who has also represented Sri Lanka in Cricket (Ceylon) and played First Class Cricket both in Sri Lanka and in England from 1964 to 1969.
The closing and award ceremony will be held on 20 February at Colts Cricket ground where the chief guest will be former Sri Lankan captain and the most elegant batsman of all time Aravinda de Silva. Several other cricketers from the 1996 World Cup winning team and the 2014 T20 World Cup winning team will be participating as guests.
President ARCASIA, Archt. Jahangir Khan, President AIA, Ar. Thomas Vonier, (American Institute of Architects) and Ar. Divya Kush, (Indian Institute of Architects) will be the guests of honour.
The Sri Lanka team is captained by Archt. Manoj Champika (opening batsman and left arm spinner) and the vice-captain is all-rounder Archt. Sulochana Amunugama. Coach: Sanjaya Wijesinghe. Sri Lankan team toured India in 2011 and Pakistan in 2015.
The Pakistan team will be captained by Archt. Ramiz Baig. They have toured Sri Lanka in 2014 and 6 of those players are included in the current squad.
The Indian team is captained by Archt. Jitendra Mehta with Archt. Ayush Bhardwaj as the vice captain. This is the first time and Indian Architects Cricket team is touring Sri Lanka.