SLC to improve facilities in conflict-affected areas

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) will install four new turf pitches in former conflict-affected areas in the north and east of the island, board secretary Nishantha Ranatunga has said. As a first step, SLC had already laid a turf pitch and developed the ground at Jaffna's St. Patrick's College in 2013.

"Within the next month or so we hope to start constructing four turf pitches at a cost of Rs 2 - 2.5 million each to two schools in the north and two in the east," Ranatunga said. The pitches were expected to be completed in the first half of 2015.

All four new surfaces will be laid at high schools. St John's College and Central College are the two recipients in Jaffna, while Hindu College in Trincomalee and Thiraimadu College in Batticaloa are the eastern schools to benefit.

A joint project between local charity Foundation of Goodness, Tokyo Cements, and SLC has also had 30 concrete practice wickets built in the north over the past two years. Ranatunga said SLC would build five more concrete pitches in the north, as well as five more in the east.

"The north and east are areas we have identified that can produce a lot of cricketers. There is an enormous amount of talent there but due to the 26-year war no development work has taken place and they have fallen behind," said Ranatunga. "If you look at the Under-23 and schools-tournament performances you will see the vast potential that is surfacing."

Fast bowler R Naguleswaran, who represented Colombo CC in the division I Lakspray trophy tournament in the early eighties, was among the last crop of top cricketers to emerge from the north before the war shut out the emergence of any future players from that area.

Ranatunga expects players from the north and east to make it to the national U-19 sides within the next three to four years.