Dinner Dance to raise funds for Schools’ cricket in Sri Lanka

Cricket Ball 2013 organised by the Sri Lanka Cricket UK Committee was held at the Grange Hotel, St Paul’s London on Saturday the 15^th of June to raise funds for schools’ cricket and also to honour the Sri Lanka Cricket team who are in the UK to take part in the ICC Champions Trophy tournament.

The 420 guests were hosted to a glittering reception of exquisite canapés and drinks, with Sri Lanka Cricket’s newest sponsor Sri Lanka Tea Board displaying its wares with gift tea packs for the guests whilst enjoying the Latin music played by the trio ‘Los Musicos’, followed by dinner in the elegant Shakespeare suite. The room was bedecked with stunning floral arrangements on the tables with a theme of blue and yellow, the colours of Sri Lanka Cricket. The lights lowered, cricketers entered the room to a rousing rendition of the ‘contender’.

The Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews then introduced his team to those assembled, followed by the lighting of the traditional brass lamp by the High Commissioner for Sri Lanka Dr Chris Nonis, The Secretary of the Sri Lanka Cricket Board, Mr Nishantha Ranatunga, Angelo Mathews and the Chairman of the Sri Lanka Cricket UK Committee Asitha Jayaweera. Three Kandyan dancers and 2 drummers then entertained the guests to an energetic and vibrant rendition of dancing, set to modern Sri Lankan music. A very impressive performance indeed.

The Chairman of the SLC UK committee was then invited by the very able and charismatic Master of Ceremonies for the evening, Professor Chitramohan, to make the Welcome speech.

Asitha spoke of the team’s superb win against England on the Thursday before and said what a fantastic day it had been for Sri Lanka “At the halfway stage, we were written off, our tournament future in the balance but we all still believed that we could do it! And mere hours later, the jewels in our ‘crown-of-an- innings’, Nuwan and Sanga, were depositing the England bowling-attack all over the park, on the way to one of our most famous victories”. He also thanked the event’s sponsors Grange Hotels and SriLankan Airlines for their generous support.

The funds raised from the event will be utilised to improve school and district cricket in every corner of Sri Lanka. The Sri Lanka Cricket UK Committee has already made a significant contribution to schools cricket this year by donating much needed cricket balls to 134 schools including cricket training aids for the National Coaching Department.

Dr Chris Nonis, the High Commissioner for Sri Lanka spoke of how cricket’s powerful unifying nature could help with reconciliation and re-construction work going on in Sri Lanka. His speech was followed by Mr Michael de Zoysa, Manager of the Sri Lanka team who spoke of the tea industry in Sri Lanka and its history and the fact that the Sri Lanka Tea Board has just signed up to be one of the sponsors of Sri Lanka Cricket, as its International Tour Partner. He compared the skills of our cricketers to some of the bygone greats of world cricket. Kumar Sangakkara arguably the world’s best batsman currently to Donald Bradman, Mahela Jayawardena to Victor Trumper and Tilekaratne Dilshan to Jessop.

The guests were entertained by the band ‘Exceed’ well into the early hours of the morning. A most enjoyable time was had by all whilst raising much needed funds for schools cricket, to ensure Sri Lanka cricket’s future remains bright.

The event was also graced by the Minister for Sports Mr Mahindananda Aluthgamage, The Secretary of Sri Lanka Cricket Mr Nishantha Ranatunga and other Members of the Executive Committee of SLC, and Mr Tony Matharu the proprietor of Grange Hotels.

The organising committee consisted of Deepal and Shanthini Ahangama, Upali and Kamali De Soyza, Ajith Dandeniya, Ananda Thevathasan, Nazoomi Azhar, and Asitha and Preethie Jayaweera.