Toronto Mayor’s Team with Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe at Temple Trees with Canadian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Shelley Whiting. (Courtesy Ranil Mendis)
Organizers of the CIMA Mayor’s cricket tour to Sri Lanka say the initiative was successful.
For the past few years school cricketers from the Toronto area have flown to the United Kingdom as part of the Cricket Across the Pond (CAP) program.
CAP has won awards from the International Cricket Council (ICC) for its efforts.
This year, the CAP program decided to tour Sri Lanka, allowing the Toronto team to play teams from Sri Lankan schools across the country.
Toronto school cricketers interact with Sri Lankan children.
In June, Toronto Mayor John Tory hosted a grand send-off for the team at City Hall.
The tour included games against school teams in Colombo, Kandy, Jaffna, and the Foundation of Goodness in Hikkaduwa.
Ahead of the tour, Sri Lankan great Kumar Sangakkara applauded the tour and hoped the Toronto team would build bridges with Sri Lankan school children.
In fact some members of the Toronto Mayor’s XI were of Sri Lankan origin had special interactions with Sri Lankan school children.
This year’s tour was sponsored by the Royal Bank of Canada, Kanish& Partners, Qatar Airways and Tom’s Place.
