Sri Lanka to host 12th Indoor Cricket WC

 Hiran de Mel (Head of Operations CICA) briefing the media. Also, in the picture are (from left) Ravin de Silva (Media Director), Manish Kishore (Managing Director, U Pro), Asela Pathirana, (Head Coach CICA), Manorie Kodituwakku (Head of Women’s CICA) and Priyantha Wickramanayake, (Coordinator CICA)

By M. Shamil Amit

The World Indoor Cricket Federation (WICF) has awarded the Ceylon Indoor Cricket Association (CICA) to conduct the 12th World Cup 2025 and is scheduled to be held at two venues - the Austasia Sports Complex and the newly built U Pro Arena in Thalawathugoda.

The decision was taken by the WICF officials on the back of having successfully conducted the World Masters Series five months ago. 

The tournament is planned for the latter stage of the year from September 27 to October 5 at the two venues.

Eight countries namely defending champions Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, England, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, USA and host Sri Lanka are scheduled to battle out for honours. 

The event will be held in four categories: Men’s Open, Women’s Open, Under-22 Boys’ and Under-22 Girls’.

The organisers CICA are expecting over 1,000 inclusive of players, officials and spectators of the respective teams participating. Apart from being a major sporting event it will also serve as popular sports tourism since the island is witnessing an upward trend in tourist arrivals. 

This will be the third major event being conducted by CICA over the last year following the England Asia Cup and the Masters World Serie and this will be the second time that the CICA will be conducting the Indoor World with the last being way back in 2004.

The inaugural Indoor Cricket World Cup was held in 1995 hosted by England while Australia has conducted the most in the year 1999, 2009 and 2022 when it was last held at Brisbane.

New Zealand (2002/2014), England (1995/2007) and South Africa (2000/2011) have conducted the event for two years with Sri Lanka (2004) and UAE (2017) one each.

In the Men’s category Australia have won all the titles since the inception with New Zealand having been runners-up eight time with South Africa twice and Sri Lanka once when it was held in Colombo. 

In the Women’s category Australia have been successful since it began in 1988 with South Africa ending up as the second best on seven occasions and New Zealand three times.

Hiran de Mel (Head of Operations CICA) and Manish Kishore (Managing Director, U Pro) with the Cricket World Cup logo (Pix by Pradeep Dilrukshana)