The Cyprus cricket league takes off with the first round match between WSBA and Sri Lanka CC teams at the Happy Valley grounds in Episkopi today at 11.
2005 league champions WSBA is a military team with players drawn from army and air force bases on the west of the island, Episkopi and Akrotiri, while the 2004 champions, Sri Lanka CC is a Nicosia based team combined of mostly Sri Lankans as its name suggests.
Michael Kyriacou, the captain of the Cyprus national team, expressed his opinion on the quality of this year’s competition, “The overall quality of the league is good. There are a number of very talented Asian players who have represented their countries in the U-19 national teams, and many of them have also played for some local clubs representing their cities. There are also many players from Australia, South Africa and England who have had tutelage by known coaches in their respective countries.”
The agenda for league games this season will be looser than last year. The new schedule will benefit all the teams as they will be in position to set their own playing program unlike last season when they had to play their matches every Sunday. However, each team is allowed to play a maximum of six matches in the first phase of the competition. Since there are eight teams registered for this year’s league it is obvious that not all teams will play each other and the Cyprus Cricket Association will try to make the fixtures as fair to each team as possible. The monthly schedules will be determined at the beginning of each month.
“Each match comprises of 40 overs, with each bowler allowed to bowl seven overs. Each over has a time limit of 4 minutes otherwise overs will be deducted from the bowling team when they will bat,” Kyriacou clarified the individual match structure.
The first phase of the league runs for 12 weeks finishing on Sunday 6th August, while the second phase will involve the top four teams and will start in September and run till the end of October.
There will be no league games on the first Sunday of each month. On these Sundays the Cyprus national team will play against chosen island teams as a part of its preparation for the upcoming European championship.
Kyriacou was very enthusiastic about this opportunity for a good practice: “At the beginning of each month the national side will play a random team from the league. The objective to this is that firstly it will give us a chance to play together as a team, as the players in the national team obviously play for different teams in the league. Another advantage is that it gives the players more match practice which is essential for the national team players to find their form ahead of the European championship 4th division in August.”
