Indoor Cricket: Australasia Cup - Fixture schedule, team lists, scoring and live-stream details

Photo Credit: Ceylon Indoor Cricket Association

The Australasia Cup kicks-off this Thursday from Colombo with Sri Lankan, Australian, Singaporean and Indian sides all in action across the Open Men's, Open Women's, 21 & Under Girls and 21 & Under Boys' grades. Here are the details surrounding the event:

Where can you watch?

All matches will be live-streamed with commentary through The Papare, which is Sri Lanka's largest sports streaming website (it is operated by the telecommunications company Dialog). The Papare will live-stream the matches from their website at http://www.thepapare.com. Alternatively, matches can be found on their Facebook page (Facebook: thepapare.com). 

The Ceylon Indoor Cricket Association (CICA), the governing body for indoor cricket in Sri Lanka, will also share the links from the website to their own Facebook page (Facebook: Ceylon Indoor Cricket Association).

Match scoring and statistics

Scorecards of matches, including practice games and ladders will be available on the WICF Spawtz scoring website, available at this link: http://wicfwina.spawtz.com/ActionController/LeagueList?VenueId=106

What can you expect?

The Venue:

The surface at the Austasia complex is 18-years-old - the older courts mean there is likely to be little grip on the surface. You would call this a truer indoor cricket type of turf. The ball won't stop on the batsmen and will skid on quickly, meaning bowlers and batsmen will have to adjust their strategies accordingly. 

Australia:

Australia are the reigning (and only) world champions in indoor cricket across all grades and it would be difficult to see them not winning the Open Men's tournament or any of the Open Women's, 21 & Under Girls or 21 & Under Boys' series here either. They have brought in some new players into their set-ups for this development tour, but all have experienced representative cricket before at State level and a number have also come off successful campaigns in Australia's National Indoor Cricket League which recently concluded. It represents a good opportunity for some fringe players to push forward their cases for selection going forward, with a series in New Zealand next year before a World Cup in 2020. 

Sri Lanka:

The hosts Sri Lanka are playing in their own conditions, which they will look to use to their advantage. That extends from the heat and humidity to the experience on the surface at Austasia. They are coming in with some confidence, giving the more fancied sides at last year's World Cup some competitive matches. The Open Men's side lost in the final of the Asia Cup to India back in January, however they accounted for a touring England side 6-0 in April. Their development side also played well against the touring England Lions team.

Several Open Men's squad are very experienced now, with Hiran De Mel, Head of Technical and Operations of CICA remarking to RealSport that "a lot of these guys have been playing since the inception of CICA in 2000. It means that while they have aged in terms of physical fitness, they have matured enough to understand their own games and how to play against the Australasians". He also noted that some new players have brought in, to ensure that complacency has been eradicated from older players in the set-up. He expects the women to have a tougher time, being a relatively new squad, and sees this as a learning curve for them. While a number of the squad have been involved with Sri Lanka or Sri Lanka A sides in outdoor cricket, they will find it difficult against the Australian sides, who have a good amount of experience mixed with some exciting young talent coming up.

India:

India will come into the tournament a bit under-done in terms of preparation, with there initially being some confusion around their participation in the event. The travelling side therefore will only contain five of the 12 members who won the Asia Cup in India back in January. There will be some experience missing in this respect. 

While Sri Lanka have concentrated on beating the top indoor nations including Australia, New Zealand and South Africa at recent tournaments, it has been India who have snuck in under the radar and beaten Sri Lanka more often than not. They will be wary of the challenge they present. 

Singapore:

Singapore have brought over eight of the 12 squad members from last year's World Cup, but are missing a couple of key players. It at least ensured some good continuity as a playing unit. Probably the weakest of the four sides, they didn't make the Asia Cup final and will look to make a point here. Their development continues as they sent over 13 & Under and 17 & Under Boys' teams to Australia's Junior National Championships back in July and will do the same for the Junior World Series in New Zealand starting at the end of this month. 

Fixture schedule

*All times stated are Sri Lanka local time 

The first match of each day will start at 10.00am local time, with the last match taking place at 6.45pm. With indoor cricket rules allowing a maximum of 38 minutes per innings, expect each match to last up to 90 minutes with the change of innings included. 

The Open Men's tournament will see each Sri Lanka, Australia, India and Singapore play each other twice in a round-robin format, with the top two sides advancing to the final on Monday. The Open Women, 21 & Under Women and 21 & Under Mens' grades will comprise a five-match series between Sri Lanka and Australia only.

On the final day the first match will start at 8.00am, with the Open Men's final concluding the tournament, beginning at 1.45pm.

Team Lists

Open Men:

Open Women:

21 & Under Women:

21 & Under Men: