The opening ceremony of the Carlton Junior Tennis Cup was held on the 25th of October at the Sri Lanka Tennis Association premises.
The tournament which is scheduled to take place from the 25th to the 28th of Oct is undoubtedly the largest event in the local history of the sport and is set to host over 1000 youngsters from a range of schools spanning the entire island.
The schools that are scheduled to take part in the Red ball(under 7), Orange ball(under 8), Green ball(under 10) and Yellow ball(under 12) events of the tournament are as follows.
Jaffna region
Chundukuli Girls College
St Patricks College
Holy Family Convent Jaffna
Kalutara region
Kalutara Maha Vidyalaya
Kurunegala region
Maliyadeva College Kurunegala
Matale region
Sirimavo Bandaranaike Vidyalaya
Kandy region
Trinity College
Negombo region
St Peters College – Negombo
Ave Maria Convent
Newstead Girls School
St Josephs College Negombo
Colombo Region
St Josephs College
Ananda College
Thustan College
Royal College
St. Thomas’ College
Bishops College
Methodist College
Holy Family Convent Colombo
Visakha Vidyalaya
Musaeus College
Ramanathan Hindu ladies College
D.S. Senanayake College
British School Colombo
Asian International School
St. Bridgets Convent
St. Peters College
The opening ceremony commenced at 8.00 am with the arrival of the Chief guest, renowned cricketing star T.M. Dilshan, Mr. Iqbal Bin Issack (president of the SLTA), Mr. Ravin Du Plessis(CEO of HSC), Mr. Ronnie Ibrahim(general secretary HSC) alongside representives of the sponsoring organizations E wis, Zigo and Suncity Travels.
The spectacle that followed was truly magnificent as all those gathered witnessed the arrival of all the players on to the center court. The sheer magnitude of the event was evident in the number of junior players who were present at the picturesque opening ceremony. It was also a good indicator of the island wide reach of the sport along with the fact that the future of the sport is indeed a bright one.
After the hoisting of the National Flag, ITF flag, HSC flag and the SLTA flag by the dignitaries the tournament director Mr. Dinith Pathiraja addressed the gathering. He expressed the fact that it is a great honor to take on the role of the tournament director for the largest tennis tournament the nation has ever organized. He also went on to state the following. ‘ I would also like to thank the chief guest Mr. Dilshan for taking time off his busy schedule to be here with us today, I am sure it will serve as a great motivator for all the children here today’. ‘ I would also like to thank everyone for coming out here to be apart of this wonderful event and I see this as a very good omen for the sport of tennis as far as the future is concerned’ he reiterated.
The CEO of the Hambantota Sports Club Mr Du Plessis also addressed the gathering and expressed his gratitude to the sponsors for coming on board to provide the financial assistance needed to make this event a success.
The proceedings came to a close with the tournament officially being declared open by the General Secretary of the Hambantota Sports Club Mr. Ronnie Ibrahim.
ThePapare.com takes this opportunity to wish the players the best of luck for the tournament.
