Cricket was first introduced to Sri Lanka (then known as Ceylon) in the mid-Eighteenth Century by British colonists. In 1864, S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia became the first school to play cricket, mainly against small clubs. In 1876, Royal College Colombo began playing with the arrival of English cricketer Ashley Walker. Sri Lanka's first inter-school match was played between S. Thomas' College and Royal College in 1880, establishing an annual match, popularly known as The Battle of the Blues.
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Expansion
Cricket became popular among the people in the colonies of the British Empire. This applied to Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) as it was a British colony. Since St. Thomas College, Mt. Lavinia and Royal College, Colombo started to play cricket, large schools in Kandy, Galle, Matara and Jaffna also included cricket in their sports programs. Gradually, cricket became one of the entertaining sports wherever it was played in Sri Lanka, and one of the most popular games amongst the public. By this time, the Sri Lankan government realized the importance of developing cricket as a national sport; and as a result various development projects, such as constructing grounds with all necessary infrastructure facilities and encouraging more schools to play cricket by providing necessary funds, as cricket was an expensive game, were undertaken by then governments with a view to making school cricket a nursery for forming a strong national team to represent Sri Lanka at the international level.
Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC)
The main body that governed and looked after the cricket in Sri Lanka initially was a board called ‘Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka' (BCCSL). Later on, with full blessings of said governments the BCCSL renamed ‘Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC)’. With the vast development and expansion of school cricket in the country, it became necessary for the main control body (SLC) to have an Association to assist them in activities relevant to school cricket and with this requirement ‘Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association (SLSCA) came into existence in the year 1948.
Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association (SLSCA)
SLSCA was an idea conceived in the minds of a group of school principals way back in 1930, and the organization was officially formed in 1948 with Rev. J. S. Carter, Principal of Wesley College, Colombo, as its first president. Since then SLSCA has taken full responsibility in decision making, arranging island-wide inter-school tournaments, and appointing office bearers at school level. In Sri Lanka, school cricket is played in a well-organized manner without hampering the other activities of people involved. In most cricket playing countries school cricket is not played competitively and doesn't receive very much recognition at core level; but in Sri Lanka, players are given enough opportunities to expose themselves competitively and as a result the best teams gain due recognition for their hard work. There are hardly any countries in the world where school cricket tournaments from U13 to U19 age groups are coordinated in such a way the SLSCA does it in Sri Lanka and therefore the Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association is considered to be one of the best organizations of its type in the world.
Laws & authority
The school cricket tournaments are conducted under the laws of cricket 2000 code 4th edition and ICC playing conditions with special conditions laid down by SLSCA. A tournament committee that is appointed by SLSCA for each tournament has the full authority on all matters relating to the respective tournaments and they do take the responsibility of conducting tournaments with complete control over them.
Eligibility for participation
All SLSCA-affiliated member schools are eligible to take part in tournaments organized and conducted by SLSCA.
Schools and tournament categorization
U19 – D1, 11 & 111
U17 & 15 – D1, 11 & 111
U13 – D1, 11 & 111
U19 – D1, 11 & 111
U17 & 15 – D1, 11 & 111
Under 19 tournaments
As per the records of 2013/14 tournaments, there were 37 schools in Division 1, 29 in division 11 and 142 in division 111, 208 teams all together for the initial participation.
http://www.batsman.com/School_Cricket.aspx
Under 17 tournaments
2013/14 season statistics indicate that 77 schools in Division 1, 32 in division 11 and 150 in division 111, amounting to a total of 259 teams took part.
Under 15 tournaments
For Initial participation there were 585 teams in 2013/14 season; 80 schools in Division 1, 73 in division 11 and 432 in division 111.
Under 19 main tournaments
- Group matches among all Teams confirmed the participation in each division are played in three tournaments (U19 – D1, U19 – D11 & U19 – D111) and two teams that top the points table of D1 and D11 are declared champions of two-day league tournaments. At league level (in two-day tourney) a champion team in D111 is not selected.
- First 30 teams of D1 two-day tourney, first 14 teams of D11 two-day tourney and first 4 teams of D111 two-day tourney, 48 teams all together play group matches (12 groups) in the first round and then the 12 group leaders and 4 best teams out of runners up in each group play knock-out matches in the final round for selection of the limited over champions.
- In addition to the above tournament, a knock-out limited over tournament involving only the teams that complete 5 matches in the D111 two-day tournament is conducted to select the limited over champions of schools in division 111.
- The 16 teams that were qualified to play in the pre-quarter finals of the limited over tourney play T20 matches for the T20 title on knock out basis.