Two four-member Sri Lankan boys’ and girls’ cager teams leave for Malaysia today to participate in the FIBA Under-18 3x3 Asia Cup Championship to be held from May 26 to 29 in Cyberjaya, Malaysia.
The Lankan boys’ team will be led by Brent Thevakumara, an experienced player from the Asian International School - Colombo and will include Shivanga de Silva (CIS- Colombo), Rukshan Atapattu (Royal College, Colombo) and Rashan Perera of Lyceum International School - Wattala.
Selomi Gunasekara of St. Joseph’s Girls School, Nugegoda will captain the girls team and will have the services of her school mate Rashmi Tania Perera, Puja Liyanage (Gateway College, Rajagiriya) and Gnei Hazeena from Lyceum International School - Wattala. According to Team Leader, Sivashakthi Selvaraja, who trained the two teams, Sri Lanka has high hopes of winning a medal in the boys’ segment as a well balanced and talented foursome has been assigned for the task. Sri Lankan boys will play the preliminaries in Pool ‘A’ against Japan and Kyrgyzstan.
The girls’ team too comprise a very talented quartet, but will have a slight disadvantage in height, as one of their tallest player had to skip the tour due an injury. The Lankan girls will play in Pool ‘B’ along with hosts Malaysia and Kazakhstan. Gayathri Kamalangani will accompany squad as the Lady Chaperon.
Captain Brent said they are confident of bringing honour to the country. “We started comprehensive practices soon after the selection trials in March under one of the best trainers, Selvaraja. All four team members are well experienced with international exposure and this is my second time in the tournament, so we are ready to challenge strong teams this time,” he explained.
Girls’ captain Selomi was very optimistic and said her team is in high spirit to face the Malaysian challenge.
Thread Works (Pvt) Ltd stepped forward to sponsor Sri Lankan teams’ playing kits and its chairman and CEO Dr. Gehan de Soysa handed over the kits to team members at the St. Joseph GS, Nugegoda yesterday.
Last year too the tournament was held at the same venue, where both Sri Lankan boys’ and girls’ teams were eliminated at the group stage.
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