Posted on 04/05/2003 6:04:09 PM PST by miltonim
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger separatist rebels -- taking advantage of their cease-fire with the Sri Lankan government -- have taken to the game of cricket, winning their first match in a grand style, a news report said.
A team of former guerrillas from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) scored 250 runs in the allotted 20 overs, or 12.5 runs an over, and bowled out their opponents, a local team, for 14 runs, the Tamil Guardian newspaper reported in its latest edition, received in Colombo on Wednesday.
The newspaper called it a friendly match, meaning it was not part of any tournament. The local team was drawn from a state-run hospital near where it was played.
The match, held Sunday in the eastern town of Batticaloa, was watched by the rebels' local military commander, Prabha.
Cricket tournaments were never shelved during the peak of the civil war in this cricket-crazy nation. The rebels often attacked Colombo with their suicide bombers, but never targeted a cricket match or players. The country has 3,000 clubs and 20,000 registered players.
The rebels, who say Sri Lanka's 3.2 million minority Tamils are discriminated against by the 14 million majority Sinhalese, signed a cease-fire with the government in February last year. The truce halted 19 years of fighting.
The government and rebels are holding peace talks in a bid to end the conflict, which has claimed about 65,000 lives and displaced 1.6 million people.
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