Fairfirst Insurance Limited for the 6th successive year has come forward to support the Mercantile Cricket Association (MCA) as the sponsor to the MCA ‘F’ Division 25-Over League Tournament 2024, contested for the Fairfirst Insurance Trophy.
The tournament has attracted 28 teams, including 03 new comers namely IPD Global, Cameralk and Empire Tea.
The Groupings: 28 teams pooled into 04 Groups of 07 each are as follows;
Group ‘A’ (07): Asiri Hospitals, Ansell Lanka (Pvt) Ltd, IPD Global, CW Mackie, Dialog Axiata, Standard Chartered Bank & Softlogic Life.
Group ‘B’ (07): South Asia Gateway Terminals (Pvt) Ltd, Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC ‘B’, Cargills Bank, Ceylon Tobacco Company PLC, Ranpath Group, Astron Limited & Seylan Bank.
Group ‘C’ (07): David Peiris Group of Companies ‘B’, Certis Lanka Group, Ansell Textiles Lanka, Cameralk, Maliban Biscuits ‘B’, MAS Active ‘B’ & Pizza Hut.
Group ‘D’ (07): EB Creasy, Union Bank of Colombo PLC, HNB ‘B’, Emerchemie NB (Ceylon) Limited, Atire (Pvt) Ltd, Empire Tea & Hilton Colombo Residencies.
The Tournament Structure
The tournament is conducted in 02 stages; the league stage, consisting 84 half day matches and the ‘Knock-out’ stage, consisting 15 matches, including the final.
The league stage will commence on the 3rd of February and will conclude on 17th March: the “knock-out” stage, the pre quarter-finals on 23rd & 24th March; the Quarter Finals on 30th March, the Semi Finals on 2nd April and the final on 6th April at MCA Ground.
The selected venues are MCA, NSCA Ratmalana, Dharmapala – Pannipitiya, De Mazenod – Kandana, St. Joseph’s – Darley Road & St. Sebastian’s – Moratuwa.
The Player Control Team (PCT): All matches are supervised by a MCA appointed Match Referee; the on field umpires are assigned by the Association of Professional Cricket Umpires, Sri Lanka (APCUSL); the score board and DLS Method Scorers are assigned by Sri Lanka Cricket scorers.
The Tournament Ball: All matches up to the final will be played with the GOC League Red ball directly imported from Pakistan with the MCA logo, supplied to the teams at cost.
Special Awards: Best Batsman, Best Bower, Man of the Series & Man of the Final.
In the previous final held on 22nd April 2023 at the MCA Grounds, Expo Lanka Holdings beat HNB ‘B’ by 13 runs in the DLS Method.
The official sponsorship handing over ceremony together with the media conference was held on Thursday, 18th January at the MCA Legends Wing, 6.30 PM where the Chief Sales Officer, Fairfirst Insurance Limited, Sanjay Siriwardene, handed over the sponsorship package to MCA President, Mahesh De Alwis.
Also present at the occasion were Chief Operating Officer, Dhilan Mitchell and National Head – Affinity, Nelum Weragoda (both from Fairfirst Insurance): General Secretary, Rohan Somawansa, and Chairman Sponsorship Committee Hasitha Dassanayake (both from MCA).
 as the sponsor to the MCA ‘F’ Division 25-Over League Tournament 2024, contested for the Fairfirst Insurance Trophy.){kind=link}