Tokyo Cement Rural Cricket Development with FoG

Tokyo Cement PLC has partnered with the Foundation of Goodness to develop rural cricket across Sri Lanka. The most recent initiative seeks to extend professional high standard cricket coaching programmes to Northern Sri Lanka, in an effort to develop cricketing skills and identify talented cricketers from the region.

Monthly coaching camps are conducted by National Women’s Cricket Coach Mr. Hemantha Devapriya and his coaches, and each month it is conducted in a different Northern region. The first such coaching clinic took place in August at the Jaffna Central College grounds in Jaffna. 35 students between 13 and 19 years of age attended the session to fine tune their skills.

The second session took place in September at the Kilinochchi Central College grounds in Kilinochchi for an even bigger group than Jaffna. A total of 50 kids between 13 and 19 years of age were gathered in Kilinochchi to learn from Mr. Hemantha Devapriya and his 3 coaches, and while their skill level may not have been that of their Jaffna counterparts, their keen enthusiasm made up for it. The very purpose of these endeavors is to take such students with limited training and give them the chance to excel.

The next coaching camp is scheduled to take place in Mullaitivu but has been delayed due to bad weather, and will pick up once more when the children have completed their year end exams

The  North coaching camps mimic the monthly coaching sessions conducted by Mr. Hemantha Devapriya in the South, at the FoG Sports Academy with the kind sponsorship of Tokyo Cement who also cover the maintenance cost for the two sports grounds developed and utilized by FoG- the Sri Sumangala MCC Lords Cricket ground in Hikkaduwa and the Seenigama Surrey Oval.

Tokyo Cement has also supported rural cricket development through the sponsorships for the 2014, 2015 and 2016 Murali Harmony Cup tournaments held across 5 venues in the North for 16 school  boy teams and 8 ladies teams and were also the cement sponsors for an initiative by the Foundation of Goodness and Sri Lanka Cricket in 2013 to establish 30 practice wickets in schools across the North and East.

23th November 2017