Ex-netball captain’s team led by Lucky Alagoda beat a team of Film Stars led by veteran actress Sriyani Amarasena by 40 points to 11 in the first match of a series of exhibition netball games, played at Police Park before a large crowd on Sunday.

These exhibition matches organised by the Netball Federation will be played to raise fund for the Asian tsunami victims.

In the inaugural game played on Sunday the experience gained by the past captains proved too much for the actresses among whom were a host of well known personalities who have displayed their acting prowess on the small and silver screen.

Yesteryear screen siren, Sriyani Amerasena encouraged her team from the sidelines but did not venture into the playing field as the rest pitted their skills.

For the ex-netball captain’s team Trixie Nanayakkara (chief organiser of the event), Sandamalee Fernando, Deepthi Alwis, Deepthi Rupasinghe and Hycinth Wijesinghe excelled while for the film stars Geetha Kanthi Jayakody and budding actresses Chathurika Peiris and Nadisha Hemamali stood out.

Popular television and stage drama actress Geetha Kanthi, a noted netball player in her school days aided by her height impressed with her sharp shooting while actress Chathurika Peiris also made an impact having represented Museaus at netball.

The match in Colombo will be followed by nine other games to be held in eight districts, in Nuwara Eliya, Kalutara, Kandy, Galle, Ratnapura, Jaffna, Gampaha and Polonnaruwa respectively.