A GROUNDBREAKING INITIATIVE
By Srian Obeyesekere

Talent TV, launched by ThinkCube Systems in partnership with Sri Lanka Cricket, has come out as Sri Lanka’s newest sports and lifestyle channel in a landmark move that will for the first time in the history of Sri Lanka Cricket take domestic cricket broadcasting some 116 annual events to households across the island of the over 11 million cricket loving population.
This masterpiece latest wonderment for the game, widely seen as a massive boost to young cricketers at the grassroots level encompassing the length and breadth of the country, was spelt out yesterday by Sri Lanka Cricket’s Chief Executive Officer, Ashley de Silva and the Managing Director, Think Cube Systems, Damitha Kariyawasam in announcing the groundbreaking initiative in a major partnership between the two organisations.

The SLC CEO, Ashley de Silva, in his keynote address, while thanking all present for gracing the occasion at the Sinhalese Sports Club auditorium, and making special mention of ThinkCube Systems Managing Director, Damitha Kariyawasam and the company’s other officials as well as SLCs Chairman, Tournament Committee and member of the Executive Committee, Nalin Aponso, and the three Sri Lanka Cricket captains namely Dhananjaya de Silva, Test Captain, Charith Asalanka, ODI & T20 Captain, and Chamari Athapaththu, Sri Lanka Women’s Captain, and the media, said, “ThinkCube’s launching of the ‘Talent TV’ by securing domestic cricket event rights from Sri Lanka Cricket is a significant boost to promoting domestic cricket in making headway at that level in the domestic path, and SLC maintains its commitment to ensuring performance to higher levels through such a strong and fruitful partnership by SLC together with Think Cube Systems to exposing latent talent to perform at a higher level.”

ThinkCube Systems Managing Director, Damitha Kariyawasam, addressing the media, said, “First and foremost I must thank Sri Lanka Cricket for recognizing such an initiative by ThinkCube Systems to take domestic cricket forward and granting us the rights to do so. Therefore, I must make special mention of the SLC CEO, Mr. Ashley de Silva in this connection for our successful negotiations towards making it a reality.

Basically the whole task is to cover the U19, Emerging and youth cricket in the country. There is whole scope to develop the game amongst cricket schools and take it forward as much as possible to be productive and appreciated by everyone by such a novel and far sighted initiative by having the game at the domestic level broadcast by Talent TV which is Sri Lanka’s newest sports and lifestyle channel dedicated to broadcasting a dynamic lineup of news, talk shows, and entertainment programs, celebrating national talent from all walks of life.”

Damitha Kariyawasam emphasized that Talent TV was a groundbreaking broadcasting concept at all these levels to positioned to be a national stage for sports, inspiration, and opportunity.

“The channel is available via terrestrial UHF frequencies, IP TV, DTH platforms, all major social media channels, and OTT: www.talent tv.lk where live and recorded programs will be available free of charge to the public. Talent TV (Free to air is available via UHF 47 island-wide, UHF 22 (Colombo), UHF 28 (South), UHF 32 (Karagahatenna), UHF 56 (Ratnapura). It is driven by a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) vision focusing on nurturing and promoting local sporting talent, creating opportunities for youth and delivering high quality, engaging in content that celebrates Sri Lanka spirit and achievement,” he elaborated.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Test Captain Dhananjaya de Silva, commenting on such a TV initiative for domestic cricket said, “As the Test Captain I must say that this initiative of having live coverages of domestic tournaments is a significant boost for players in domestic cricket. Such a structure is vital to expose talent as they need to connect to audiences in the country. I wish this venture all success.”

The Lankan ODI and T20 Captain Charith Asalanka and Lankan Women’s Captain Chamari Athapaththu too similarly commented that such a television venture for domestic cricket was a path breaking move.