Sri Lanka: Rupees 20 million as subsistence for clubs (30 October 1998)

30 October 1998

Sri Lanka: Rupees 20 million as subsistence for clubs

By Sa'adi Thawfeeq

Club cricket which is the breeding ground for the national team never had it so good.

In a major move to uplift the domestic competition and make it more meaningful and competitive, the executive committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka recently set a side Rs. 20 million to be disbursed as subsistence to the clubs in its three divisions of competitions for the 1998-99 season.

This would mean that all the clubs right down the line will benefit by an almost 100 percent increase from previous years.

The BCCSL has been able to subsidise clubs in this manner because of the revenue the national team is bringing in with their outstanding performances internationally.

A major portion of this enormous figure will no doubt go to the 16 clubs participating in the Premier championships. From between Rs. 80,000 and Rs. 100,000 they received in previous years, each club will now get something like Rs. 300,000 as subsistence. This figure does not include the umpires fees which the BCCSL will be pocketing out.

As a preliminary step, the 16 clubs will be first contracted to the BCCSL in lieu of the large amount of monies that are to be disbursed. This is the first time the Cricket Board is taking such a step with regard to clubs.

The figures will differ proportionately for the other sections and divisions which will also come under contract gradually.

The BCCSL will continue with the 16 clubs that played in last season's Segment 'A' tournament for the Premier championships which will be played from January to April next year. The tournament unlike last season (when it was conducted in two groups) will be run on a league system with the clubs meeting each other once and the champion being the team that finishes on top of the league.

"In fairness to the clubs that will be relegated, the Cricket Board in consultation with the tournament committee has decided to shelve their plans to reduce the Premier championships to 12 clubs by another season," said tournament committee chairman Carlton Bernadus.

"These clubs have made written submissions which are quite reasonable. The tournament committee have therefore decided to proceed with the tournament while reviewing the situation," said Bernadus.

However, at the end of the 1998-99 season, the bottom four clubs will be relegated to play in the Sara trophy tournament. There won't be any promotion of clubs from the Sara trophy to the Premier championships for this season, as the tournament committee intends keeping the number of clubs in the major championship to 12.

The BCCSL has also renamed the domestic tournaments which it is conducting for the 1998-99 season. The tournaments with the number of participating clubs:

Premier championships (16 clubs) (3 days)
Premier limited-over tournament (16 clubs) (50 overs)
Sara trophy tournament (15 clubs) (2 days)
Champions trophy limited-over tournament (15 clubs) (50 overs)

Emerging trophy tournament (36 clubs) (2 days)

Regional Challenge trophy tournament (32 clubs) (limited-overs).

Over 200 clubs will participate in the first round of the tournament which will be conducted by the respective districts. Clubs who are members of the BCCSL will receive a subsistence of Rs. 25,000 each.

Source :: Daily News (https://www.lanka.net)