Three cricketers from Jaffna, Vikneshwaran Akash (Hartley College Point Pedro), JR Newton (Jaffna Central) and Jeyachandran Aznath (St. John’s College) represented Dambulla in the recently concluded Sri Lanka Cricket under-17 Super Provincial tournament.
The occasion marked the first time three players from the North, where sport was left in tatters due to a 30-year civil war, were selected to a team for a major tournament.
Significantly all three budding players are bowlers.
Akash is a right arm leg spin bowler who last year represented the under 15 Dambulla team at the same tournament while Newton is a left arm medium pacer and Aznath a Chinaman left arm spin bowler.
“From what I have seen in these three bowlers is that they have the potential to go forward and hopefully the national selectors have also seen something in them.
“What they need is more exposure on turf pitches against top quality opposition as well as coaching at a higher level,” said Ranjan Paranavithana a National regional player-selector based in Dambulla.
Jaffna based National youth team selector S Nishanthan also played a part in bringing the three players into the limelight.
Three years ago Vijayakanth Wiyaskanth and V. Dinoshan represented Dambulla under-19 and both are currently playing First Class domestic club cricket.
Wiyaskanth has impressed in the last two Lanka Premier League tournaments for Jaffna Kings.
Colombo North beat Kandy in the final of the tournament which was played in Colombo.