Fairfirst Insurance sponsors MCA “F” division for 6th successive year

Fairfirst Insurance Limited, for the sixth successive year, has come forward to support the Mercantile Cricket Association (MCA) as the sponsor of the MCA “F” division 25-Over League Tournament 2024, contested for the Fairfirst Insurance Trophy.

The tournament has attracted 28 teams, including three newcomers, namely IPD Global, Cameralk, and Empire Tea. The 28 teams pooled into four groups of seven each are as follows:
Group “A”: Asiri Hospitals, Ansell Lanka (Pvt) Ltd., IPD Global, CW Mackie, Dialog Axiata, Standard Chartered Bank and Softlogic Life

Group “B”: South Asia Gateway Terminals (Pvt) Ltd, Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC “B”, Cargills Bank, Ceylon Tobacco Company PLC, Ranpath Group, Astron Limited and Seylan Bank
Group “C”: David Pieris Group of Companies “B”, Certis Lanka Group, Ansell Textiles Lanka, Cameralk, Maliban Biscuits “B”, MAS Active “B” and Pizza Hut
Group “D”: EB Creasy, Union Bank of Colombo PLC, HNB “B”, Emerchemie NB (Ceylon) Limited, Atire (Pvt.) Ltd, Empire Tea and Hilton Colombo Residencies

The tournament is conducted in two stages: the League stage, consisting of 84 half-day matches, and the Knock-out stage, consisting of 15 matches, including the final. The League stage will commence on February 3 and conclude on March 17, while in the Knock-out stage, the pre-quarter finals will be on March 23 and 24, the quarter-finals on March 30, the semi-finals on April 2, and the final on April 6 at the MCA Grounds.

The selected venues are MCA, NSCA Ratmalana, Dharmapala Pannipitiya, De Mazenod Kandana, St. Joseph’s Colombo, and St. Sebastian’s Moratuwa.
All matches will be supervised by a MCA-appointed match referee, the on-field umpires will be assigned by the Association of Professional Cricket Umpires Sri Lanka (APCUSL), and the scoreboard and DLS Method Scorers will be assigned by Sri Lanka Cricket Scorers.

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 will be awarded for Best Batsman, Best Bowler, Man of the Series, and Man of the Final.

In the previous final, held on April 22, 2023, at the MCA Grounds, Expo Lanka Holdings beat HNB “B” by 13 runs in the DLS method.

The official sponsorship handover ceremony, together with the media conference, was held on January 18th at 6:30 p.m. at the MCA Legends Wing, where the Chief Sales Officer - Fairfirst Insurance Limited, Sanjay Siriwardena, handed over the sponsorship package to MCA President Mahesh De Alwis.

Also present at the occasion were Chief Operating Officer - Fairfirst Insurance, Dhilan Mitchell, MCA General Secretary, Rohan Somawansa, and MCA Asst. Treasurer/Chairman - Sponsorship Committee, Hasitha Dassanayake.

(BM)