The Festival of Cricket was initiated in New Zealand in the year 2020 following the massive successful tournaments in England. This tournament consists of players who studied in prestigious colleges and schools in Sri Lanka. The format of the tournament is a six-a-side tournament.
The organizer’s main purpose is to bring back the good old rivalry in college cricket and reunite the Sri Lankan community in New Zealand. The team has players who have represented their respective school’s first eleven teams and some have represented Sri Lanka, national youth teams. Whatever the level of cricket they had played the main purpose of the participants is to have a good time on the field enjoy the sport that they love and mix and mingle with the Sri Lankan community in New Zealand.
The inaugural Festival of Cricket in New Zealand was played between 18 schools and the winner was Zahira College Colombo, runners-up were St. Anthony’s College Katugasthota. All games were played at Michaels Avenue reserve grounds in Auckland with a participation of over 400 players and supporters.
2nd edition was played in 2021 at Mt. Wellington war memorial park in Auckland with a participation of 24 schools. The winner of this tournament was St. Thomas College Mt.Lavinia and the runners-up were St. Anthony’s College Katugasthota. This was a successful tournament with more Sri Lankan community getting involved and attracting more teams and supporters which filled out the park with Sri Lankan culture.
This time for the first time all games are to be played on grass wickets at Waikaraka park in Onehunga Auckland. This will be a great opportunity for the players to experience playing on grass wickets in New Zealand. We are confident this time we will get more support from the schools, Local community, and Sri Lankan community to make this a successful event. The organizers are well supported by Onehunga Cricket Association and Auckland Cricket.
The 3rd edition of the Festival of cricket will be held on 5th February at Waikaraka park in Auckland starting at 9 am and to be concluded with the participation of the Sri Lankan Live band. This will be a fun-filled event for the families as it has a Bouncy castle, Sri Lankan food stalls and DJ playing throughout the day. Therefore, we invite all the Sri Lankan and local community to participate in this event to make it an enjoyable and memorable event in the Sri Lankan community calendar.