The 8th edition of the International Cricket Council (ICC) Women’s Twenty20 (T20) World Cup is scheduled to be held in South Africa from the 10th to the 26th of February and Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), on the 1st of February, when revealed their squad, also announced a new official team sponsor for the ICC event.
Sri Lanka Cricket has announced India’s NR Group-owned, Cycle Pure Incense as the official team sponsor of the Sri Lanka Women’s Team for the forthcoming, ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2023. The announcement was done during a media conference in Colombo, in the presence of Sri Lanka Cricket’s Assistant Secretary, Chryshantha Kapuwatte, women’s team skipper, Chamari Athapaththu, and Managing Director of Cycle Pure Incense, Arjun Ranga.
In the press release, Arjun Ranga, on the partnership stated, “As a brand, women’s empowerment has always been at our core as they are the powerhouse for growth. Our brand stands for hope and that is exactly what we want to bring forth with our presence in Sri Lanka as well, where we aim to spread the message of ‘Prayer for Hope’ amongst our family here in Sri Lanka.”
Cycle Pure Incense is the new team sponsor for 🇱🇰Sri Lanka in the T20 World Cup 👏#CricketTwitter #T20WorldCup pic.twitter.com/tMpPOpD9Qq
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) February 2, 2023
“Through the partnership with the women’s cricket team, we aim to continue spreading the message of solidarity, prayer, and hope not only for the women representing the team on international grounds but also for all in the country. The women’s cricket team has been quite strong in their games and we wish the squad the very best at the upcoming World Cup. We hope and pray that the country comes out stronger from its difficult situations. We will try our best to do whatever we can within our capacity to help the people of the country.”
SLC’s Assistant Secretary, said, “We are extremely happy to have Cycle Pure Incense on board as a sponsor for our team. I am sure this partnership will help Cycle enhance its brand awareness across its audience, as the Sri Lanka Women’s team will be carrying its logo during the entirety of the T20 World Cup, thus bringing in quality exposure for the firm.”
“We look forward to an exciting partnership with the company and continue to spread the message of hope and prayer to our squad as well as the rest of the country through our performance at the World Cup tournament.”
Mr. Kapuwatte then delivered a special message for the women’s team, stating, “Play as one entity at the world cup. The whole of Sri Lanka is watching in anticipation. One individual can change a game.” He also went on to drop speculations inviting statement in announcing that Sri Lanka Cricket’s Executive Committee had taken a big decision a day ago to take women’s cricket forward. Quote, “A special plan is in place for women’s cricket.”
For the forthcoming World Cup, the squad SLC revealed saw as few as 3 changes from the side’s most recent outing that came way back in October 2022 during the Asia Cup. While Rashmi Silva and Madushika Methtananda failed to make the cut, Hasini Perera missed out due to an injury to one of her fingers that she sustained during practice.
Sri Lanka’s squad for T20 World Cup:
Chamari Athapaththu (C), Oshadi Ranasinghe, Harshitha Samawickrama, Sathya Sandeepani, Nilakshi de Silva, Kavisha Dilhari, Anushka Sanjeewani, Kaushini Nuthyangana, Malsha Shehani, Inoka Ranaweera, Sugandika Kumari, Achini Kulasuriya, Vishmi Gunaratne, Tharika Sewwandi, Ama Kanchana
(Quotes sourced from Sri Lanka Cricket media release)