PHOTO - Governor Kingsley Wickramaratne and Sri Lankan Cavaliers President Lakhi Liyanage with the students of Davanant International, Mr. Ivan Corea and Deputy High Commissioner Ganegama Arachchi at the Sri Lanka High Commission in London.

The Governor of the Southern Province of Sri Lanka Hon. Kingsley Wickramaratne met a British Student delegation at the Sri Lanka High Commission during his recent visit to London. Kingsley was impressed by the genuine concern for the tsunami victims of these students from Davenant Foundation School. The students have formed a high level UK student forum called Davenant International in order to look at global issues including the tsunami. Her Majesty the Queen and the British Prime Minister were among those who had wished the launch of Davenant International every success.

The school hopes to be more involved with a project in Sri Lanka. They asked the Governor of the Southerin Province many searching questions about the tsunami and about the education of the children who were affected by the tsunami. Kingsley wished them well and said he was delighted to meet with British students from Davenant Foundation School who genuinely cared for the tsunami victims - the students had raised £4,000 for the tsunami appeal of the Disaster Emergency Committee. The students were also invited to a reception held by the Sri Lankan Cavaliers of Great Britain.

'We were honoured to meet Governor Kingsley Wickramaratne, it was our first visit to see an international statesman of his calibre. He gave us first hand information about the rebuilding of the tsunami devastated areas, our thoughts and prayers go to the people of Sri Lanka as we mark one year when the tsunami hit that beautiful island,' said Dominic Conway, President of Davenant International. Earlier the Governor of the Southern Province speaking to the world's media said - that the tsunami destroyed about 80,000 houses in the island nation of 19 million people, leaving 800,000 people homeless.

"We were shocked," said Kingsley Wickramaratne in London to attend a tsunami fund-raising dinner. "We did not know the word tsunami before that."More than 31,000 Sri Lankans were killed by the giant waves, triggered by a powerful earthquake off the west coast of Indonesia's Aceh province on Boxing Day. Governor Wickramaratne said the homeless were initially transferred to makeshift shelters and had since been moved into temporary housing made of wood, concrete blocks or tin. He said that of the 80,000 houses destroyed, the government determined only 50,000 needed to be rebuilt. To date, some 15,000 new permanent homes have been constructed and another 35,000 are still needed.

Kingsley Wickramaratne said the new structures, which must be built at least 100 metres (330 feet) from the shoreline, would be completed by April 2006.The tsunami was a major blow to Sri Lanka's tourism sector, with popular tourist areas around the coastal city of Galle among the most devastated."The entire economy is built on tourism, so we took the advantage to build a new city," Governor Kingsley Wickramaratne said. He said the Greater Galle City development project, a programme to reconstruct the devastated city, would move the city of Galle about three kilometres (two miles) from its previous location. The Governor urged British tourists to visit Galle in the Southern Province. 'Sri Lanka is open for business and the Southern Province welcomes tourists from the UK,'he said. The Sri Lankan Cavaliers Press Conference was organised by Mr. Ivan Corea and hosted by the President of the Cavaliers, Mr. Lakhi Liyanage.

The Governor was the Chief Guest at at a Sri Lankan Cavaliers Tsunami Dinner held at Lords Cricket Grounds in London. The dinner was held in conjunction with the Maryleborne Cricket Club |(MCC). The Governor spoke about human compassion and how they reached out to Sri Lankans in their hour of need when the tsunami swept over parts of the island on 26th December 2004. The Sri Lankan Cavaliers Tsunami dinner organised by Lakhi Liyanage was a huge success and raised funds for a Sri Lankan Cavaliers Cricket Village in the Southern Province. The Cavaliers hope to build not only houses but a cricket pitch and a Cavaliers Cricket Museum. It is destined to be a place where tourists would go to.

Kingsley also met one of Sri Lanka's greatest singer/songwriters Nimal Mendis who launched a special CD in aid of the Sri Lankan Cavaliers of Great Britain. The CD 'Sri Lankan Cavaliers score for the Tsunami Victims' was presented to Kingsley by Nimal Mendis at the Tsunami Dinner at Lords. Many copies of the CD were snapped up by British and Sri Lankan guests at the dinner in London.

CRICKET WORLD.COM NEWS

More MCC Support For Tsunami Survivors

25 October 2005

More MCC Support For Tsunami Survivors LONDON - JUNE 14: Shane Warne of International XI looks on at the end of the Tsunami Relief Match between MCC XI and International XI at Lord's Cricket Ground on June 14, 2005 in London, England. (Photo by Paul Gilham/Getty Images)     The MCC is stepping up its efforts to support victims of the Asian tsunami by making the Long Room available, free of charge, for a major fund-raising dinner. It is hoped that Saturday's event - organised by the Sri Lankan Cavaliers Cricket Club - will raise £25,000 to fund the construction of ten new homes for families which survived the disaster. The building work will be overseen by Arjuna Ranatunga - a member of the Cavaliers, the captain of Sri Lanka in their victorious World Cup campaign (in 1996) and now a Minister in the country's Government (which has already approved the homes' construction). The guests at the dinner will include Hon. Kingsley Wickramaratne - the Governor of the Southern Province in Sri Lanka, and Special Advisor to the President - who will provide an update on the relief and recovery effort. A number of prominent cricketing figures are also expected to attend the event, together with Sri Lanka's High commissioner in London. Some tickets are still available - priced at £65 each, or £585 for a table of ten - from the Sri Lanka Cavaliers. (For further details, please visit https://srilankancavaliers.tripod.com/.) MCC has already helped to raise over £600,000 for tsunami recovery projects, largely through the success of the special one-day match - involving (among many others) Shane Warne, Brian Lara, Kumar Sangakkara and Stephen Fleming - staged at Lord's in mid-June. The Club's President, Robin Marlar, said: "MCC has long had close connections with Sri Lanka; in particular, our touring teams played their part in moving the country towards Test status. As a result, we were particularly shocked by the tsunami, which devastated so many of the coastal areas on Boxing Day. Since then, we have been keen to help the survivors rebuild their homes, communities and lives. We are delighted to be making the Long Room available for Saturday's dinner, and wish the Sri Lankan Cavaliers every success in their efforts to build new homes - which are desperately needed - to replace those wrecked by the disaster." WORLD MUSIC CENTRAL NEWS Sri Lankan Cavaliers Tsunami Dinner in the Long Room at Lord's in London    10/22 10:48AM British and Sri Lankan musicians will join a whole host of people at a Sri Lankan Cavaliers Dinner held in the hallowed Long Room at Lord's Cricket Grounds, in conjunction with the Maryleborne Cricket Club (MCC) in St.John's Wood, London, UK on Saturday 29th October 2005. The fundraising event is in aid of the Cavaliers Tsunami Fund. The Sri Lankan Cavaliers is a distinguished private club and charity founded by business tycoon Lakhi Liyanage. When the Sri Lankan cricket team led by Arjuna Ranatunga won the Wills World Cup in 1996 - defeating Australia in the finals - they subsequently toured England as the Sri Lankan Cavaliers. This private tour was covered by the world's press. The Sri Lankan Cavaliers plan to build houses to aid the tsunami victims on the island. The Governor of the Southern Province of Sri Lanka, Kingsley Wickramaratne is flying in from Colombo to attend the function at Lord's. The Southern Province was devastated by te tsunami of 26th December 2004. Governor Wickramaratne will also be meeting the British media to update them on the post tsunami work being carried out on the island. Lord's was established in 1787 by Thomas Lord, a keen cricketer and a skilled businessman - he was also a shrewd property developer. This is a historic moment as this is the first time that a Cavaliers event has been organized in the Long Room, a place full of history - the Museum at Lord's covers over 400 years of cricketing history - in a world that includes some of the greatest names in cricket - from W.G.Grace to Michael Vaughan and the England team who recently reclaimed The Ashes in a thrilling series against Australia. When you enter the Long Room, you are treading in the footsteps of Don Bradman, W.G.Grace, Gary Sobers, Ian Botham, Shane Warne, Sachin Tendulkar, Imran Khan, Brian Lara, Arjuna Ranatunga,Sanath Jayasuriya, Muttiah Muralitharan and Aravinda De Silva - who have all been at Lord's, the home of the MCC, the guardian of the laws of this game called cricket. Cricket has always been a ' unifying force ' - it binds people together - even in a time of crisis and it was so good to see two of the greatest bowlers on earth, Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne standing side by side to help tsunami victims. The world's top cricketers have also played in charity matches from London to Melbourne in order to help the areas devastated by the tsunami. One of Sri Lanka's greatest singer/songwriters, Mr. Nimal Mendis launches a very special CD of songs in aid of the Sri Lankan Cavaliers Tsunami Fund, the CDs will be on sale at the dinner. Mr. Mendis will be present at the dinner at Lord's Cricket Grounds in London, UK. The organizers are also planning to feature his 'tsunami song' written in aid of the victims. This will also be a 'first' at Lord's. The CD will be available to music lovers all over the world. To order the Nimal Mendis CD in aid of the Sri Lankan Cavaliers Tsunami Fund access the website: http://srilankancavaliers.tripod.com. ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY NEWS Nimal Mendis CD in aid of Sri Lankan Cavaliers Tsunami Fund 23 October 2005 Nimal Mendis has been referred to as 'one of Sri Lanka's greatest singer/songwriters' - he recently played his hits in front of thousands of fans at two concerts in Colombo. Nimal Mendis recorded 22 songs on the Decca Label in London in the height of the 1960s. He also appeared on BBC TV's 'Top of the Pops' singing his hit 'Feel Like A Clown' with Sandra Edema. His songs have been aired over BBC Radio and Radio Luxembourg. He is a film maker of repute and his documentaries have been televised on BBC Television and Channel 4. On a Decca folk album of Nimal Mendis, Record producer Ray Horricks says "His work combines an awareness of western melody and harmony with great originality in his story ideas, while there is a very exotic eastern flavour about his choice of words. Also he features several unusual rhythmic feelings..." Nimal Mendis fully supports the Sri Lankan Cavaliers Tsunami initiative - he has released a very special CD of his hits in aid of the Sri Lankan Cavaliers Tsunami Project. The Nimal Mendis CD contains his hits:Razor Edge, Light Floods In, Master Hand, Master Sir, Meditate, Feel Like A Clown (his hit on BBC TV's Top of the Pops), Look into Yourself, Second Chance, It's What I am and Tsunami - the song he composed to remember the victims of the Asian tsunami disaster of December 2004. His 'Tsunami' song has been recorded in the UK, Sri Lanka and Australia. It has also been featured on television in Canada. The CD is available from the Sri Lankan Cavaliers - priced £12 including postage and packing in the UK. For all international orders please add another £1 - we will need an international money order. Please address UK cheques to: Cavaliers Tsunami Fund please contact Lakhi Liyanage on 01737351132 if you would like to purchase the special Nimal Mendis CD.