Sri Lanka's 1996 World Cup team to have cricket-styled luxury apartments
Former skipper Arjuna Ranatunga, the chairman of the company formed by the 14 players, said that while the housing will be in the bat, facilities like gym, swimming pool and indoor nets will be in a a structure shaped like a ball.
Sri Lanka's victorious 14-member 1996 World Cup winning squad has formed a company called Wills Realtors, which will build a unique cricket-styled luxury apartments in Sri Jayawardene in Colombo.
The project will be constructed on one acre land, that the team received from the government in 1996 after winning the World Cup.
"This is the land given to the 1996 World Cup squad, so we got together and we formed a new company and then with Vivanta Associates getting involved, we are in process of getting investors. We have spoken to a lot of investors. In the last two days about 8-10 top investors came and they were very keen to come to Colombo," World Cup winning captain Arjuna Ranatunga told reporters here on Thursday night.
The former Sri Lanka captain, who is the chairman of the company, said, "This particular land we have got from the government and I asked if we could do some building project here. Then I thought it would be unique to bat and ball which is relevant to cricket.
"This might be slightly expensive compared to some of the other buildings but we want it to be a unique project, relevant to the World Cup and it is like a memento for the future Sri Lankans. Otherwise it will be a general building and the value won't be there for us."
Ranatunga added that they want to raise money from the project to help past Sri Lankan cricketers and the school cricket in the country.
"We are trying to get some money through this project to lift the lifestyle of some of the past cricketers. They can be 70-80 year old's or immediate cricketers. We have seen some of them struggling very badly. That us why all 14 of us thought this is the right time," he said.
"We wanted to create some awareness among the Sri Lankans plus collect some money to look after school cricket and also to protect some of the past cricketers. It is a 200-300 unit project," he added.
The project will also include helipads, memorabilia museum, indoor nets, swimming pools and a gym.
"What we are planning to do is that the housing will be in the bat but other activities like gym, indoor nets, swimming pool will be in the ball. We are going to have indoor nets which all 14 of us are willing to use to help someone," he said.