Sri Lanka and Australia women’s cricketers will face each other at the Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium in Hambantota today (28) commencing 10 am in their U19 Women’s Tri-Nation T-20 Tournament.
This will be good platform for under 19 cricketets of each three nations Sri Lanka, England and Australia for the next year under 19 World Cup.
Manudi Nanayakkara Sri Lanka under 19 skipper said her team is very confident to take England and Australia challenge while two foreign teams are getting few practice sessions at Hambantota prior to compete this T- 20 series first followed by ODI series in Galle .
Manudi Nanayakkara the all rounder from Princess of Wales Moratuwa said my team won the recently concluded Tri nation series at Bangladesh which involved Bangladesh and Pakistan. Winning this series gave moral boost for us and our players had good preparations before this tournament, added Sri Lanka skipper Manudi Nanayakkara. Here in Hambantota these days temperature is very high and all three teams have this issue to play this series but we are trying to adjust to that conditions.
Our head coach Mahesh Weerasingha, Assistant coach Umal Erandika and other supportive staff always give good support to us. Mahesh Sir always encouraged to us for positive cricket and we wanted to get success in this tournament but we never underestimate two other opponents England and Australia said Manudi Nanayakkara.
England and Australian co skippers Luci Hamilton and Amy Smith said they are ready to play this tournament to focus on next U-19 World Cup. Australia under 19 Boys team recently won the World Cup and we also tried to get good exposure for next World Cup in 2015.
England skipper Josie Groves is very confident on her team. We had good training sessions at Hambantota and this type of sub continental wickets always give good exposure for us. The team is well balanced and we wanted to give good fight, added England skipper Josie Groves with an Zoom interview yesterday.
Sri Lanka Cricket already made arrangements to make this under 19 Tri Nation series a success.
The Tri-Nation Tournament, which also involves England, will be shown live via Channel Eye of SLRC (in Sri Lanka) and the Sri Lanka Cricket Youtube Channel. (worldwide), starting at 10h00.
Meanwhile Gates at Mahinda Rajapaksa International Stadium in Hambantota will also be kept open for the public to enter the grounds and witness the games during the entirety of the tournament.
The first three T20 games will start at 10am, while the rest of the T-20 games will commence at 2pm.
After conclusion of the T 20 series the 50-over games which will be played at Galle International Cricket Stadium will start at 10am each day .
Dhammika Ratnaweera