By Dhammika Ratnaweera
Netball Federation of Sri Lanka (NFSL) will make all arrangements to conduct first-ever Indoor Netball tournament which will be worked off from 28th to 30th November at the Ratnawali Balika MV Indoor Stadium at Bandaragama.
After the round one tournament round two of the tournament which means winners of round one will play off each other from the 4th to 6th December at the same venue. The grand finals will be played on 8th December.
Dialog Axiata PLC has come forward to sponsor this inaugural tournament which the NFSL hopes will improve the endurance levels if National level players and their competitiveness on International courts.
According to the National head coach Thilaka Jinadasa the previous National tournaments were held on weekends with matches being played for approximately 20 minutes per one half. “This way they had undermined the competitiveness of the National team for international matched as they are usually played for one hour. I think normally I do conditional training to make fitness for the players and this type of tournaments are very important for our players” said Thilaka Jinadasa the successful coach who guided to take Asian crown two months ago.
Meanwhile Harsha Samaranayake Senior General Manger Media and Communications Dialog said they were very keen to sponsor this inaugural tournament and with the power of Dialog Netball players will get a big boost for this tournament before the World Championship which will be held on next June in England.
Trixie Nanayakkara the President of the NFSL said presently Sri Lanka ranked 25th amongst the World Netball playing countries and we are plan to come among the first ten after the world cup .We are the current Asian champions and wanted to go ahead the Asian level.However Dialog give their good support to promote the game with this sponsorships.
Sport Minister Faizer Mustafa also added Netball is the sport which gave proud to Sri Lanka with winning Asian crown. We should give big support to this sport and already make good arrangements for that.
Caption : Sport Minister Faizer Mustafa, Netball President Trixie Nanayakkara, Secretary Jayanti Somasekaram, Dialog Axiata Senior General Manager Media Harsha Samaranayake, Group Chief corporate Officer Shayam Majeed, Dialog Brand Manager Andrea Sugunasekara, National Netball coach Thilaka Jinadasa, National Netball captain Chaturangi Jayasuriya are in the picture with the Dialog National Netball cup at the press conference held at the BMICH yesterday.
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