Arjuna Ranathunga lifting the Trophy, one of his career highlights

Can Indo Lanka is honoured to be a part of the marriage between Sri Lanka Cricket and Canadian Cricket Association. Can Indo Lanka’s involvement of getting the help Canada Cricket needed was a mere silly thought to many but today we’re proud of what has taken place in the eyes of those who believed it was impossible said Romesh Angunawela President of Can Indo Lanka who arranged the visit of Cricket Legend Hon. Arjuna Ranatunga M.P with the help of Mr Harsha Caldera.

A lot of credit goes to the tireless efforts of the previous CEO of Canada Cricket Mr Atula Ahuja and Canadian Cricket Coach Mr Pubudu Dassanayake who teamed up with Romesh and Harsha to make this impossible task work for the good of Cricket.

Before the visit of Sri Lanka cricket chief Arjuna Ranatunga, Canada Cricket was struggling to convince companies to sponsor their national side.

But everything changed with Ranatunga’s visit as initial talks on how Sri Lanka would help was followed by a net practice with Ranatunga addressing the Canadian Cricketers to take Cricket seriously if they are to succeed.

On an interview given to “ OMNI” Television Ranatunaga stressed on the importance of the Government of Canada helping the sport through its valuable funding and quoted the role that the Sri lankan Government played in helping Sri Lanka Cricket way back in the 70’s which paved the way for Sri Lanka to be World champs in 1996.

Soon afterwards Scotia Bank and the Government pledged their support towards Canadian Cricket. Six months after the initial talk of Sri Lanka taking Canada under its wings Canada experienced the biggest cricket tournament in Canadian Soils as the Albarakah Canada Cup T20 worth $2 Million Dollars caught the attention of cricket lovers all over Canada.

The four teams that came together to thrill the large Canadian Cricket fans were Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Zimbabwe and the home Team Canada.

Sri Lanka won the Finals against Pakistan before a crowd of approximately 50,000. During this time talks were held between Mr Ranatunga and Canadian Cricket officials with the help of “Can Indo Lanka” to train the Canadian National side somewhere in February of 2009 in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Almost 12 months after his initial visit the Sri Lanka Cricket Board officially invited the Canadian Cricket Team to undergo training at its facilities in Colombo.

The squad that started their training on February10th will continue till March 19 before they head to South Africa ahead of the qualification tournament for the next world cup. Coaching in Colombo will focus mainly on the one day aspect of the game.

Rizwan Cheema, Qaiser Ali, Umar Bhatti, Harvir Baidwan, Khurram Chohan, Sandeep Jyoti, Eion Katchay, Henry Osinde made the first batch of Canadian Cricketers to come under the Cricket Care of the Sri Lankan Cricket Board and its specialist.