Test Twenty stands to further help improve the already robust Sri Lankan schools cricket structure

 

Test Twenty
Test Twenty (PC: Test Twenty)

Boria Majumdar

It is a month to go for the start of the inaugural season of Test Twenty in Sri Lanka and the choice of venue couldn’t have been better. The Sri Lankan cricket system thrives on its schools cricket programme. A deep dive makes it evident that the schools cricket system, perhaps one of the best in the world, is the breeding ground for all national cricketers. A host of “Schoolboy Cricketers of the Year” have gone on to represent the national team and this is the bedrock of Sri Lanka cricket in every sense.

Test Twenty will enrich this further. Planned for the age groups between 13 and 21, it will give more opportunities to these cricketers at a far higher level of competition. With the best players and coaches involved in the new format, all of a sudden the kind of exposure these school cricketers will be exposed to becomes significantly better. Over time that’s what will contribute to the betterment of the eco-system.

Also, the major difference will happen in the realm of women’s cricket. Imagine a huge number of young women now exposed to the best coaching and infrastructure from overseas. Imagine them being part of a system where their talent is adequately honed over a period of time. Imagine Raj Kumar Sharma coaching Sri Lankan school cricketers who can now draw on his expertise and skill.

In Sri Lanka the schools system is already robust and deep rooted. Now with Test Twenty you have the best intellectual talent at hand to help these cricketers develop further. Not only will there be incentive, with scouts from across the world looking for talent, there is every reason to believe that it will soon become a case where potential meets opportunity. Test Twenty, over a period of time, is expected to turn into a funnel through which the best talent will start to get international exposure and opportunity. I wouldn’t be surprised if IPL scouts land up in Sri Lanka to try and explore a pool of hitherto untapped talent from across the world and pick up players for trials for the various teams going ahead. Given that Sri Lanka has its own League, the LPL, it is only natural that team owners will be attracted to Test Twenty to pick up talent from a very young age.

For Sri Lanka, nothing could have been better. All of a sudden you have the best youth talent from all over in the island competing with the best local talent nurtured by the schools system. Not only will it substantially benefit Sri Lanka cricket, it will further help improve an already robust youth cricket structure.

What I want to see now is how the organisers go about implementing season one. If the product is well packaged, produced and delivered, it surely has the potential to carve out its own niche in the cricketing eco system of Sri Lanka in the next few years.

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