Officials of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), its Cricket Committee and Premier League clubs have finally come to a settlement with a common proposal, which will apparently give the green light for the 2012/13 Premier Cricket season to begin in three weeks. The three active components of Sri Lankan cricket met for a discussion at the [...]

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SLC and clubs settle score

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Officials of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), its Cricket Committee and Premier League clubs have finally come to a settlement with a common proposal, which will apparently give the green light for the 2012/13 Premier Cricket season to begin in three weeks. The three active components of Sri Lankan cricket met for a discussion at the SLC headquarters-with its top officials, members of the Cricket Committee and representatives of 20 Premier Clubs present before commonly agreeing to a proposal on Friday evening.

This had taken place in the presence of an official representative from the Ministry of Sports. According to an official media communiqué released by SLC, the approved proposal, which is subject to the approval of the Executive Committee, will be effective from the forthcoming Premier tournament. According to the new proposal, SLC’s intention of bringing down the number of top tier teams to 10 will still materialise, but according to suggestions made by club officials.

“The original structure proposed by the Cricket Committee was the best possible plan to uplift the standards. But the clubs too face difficulties when implementing the proposed structure in a swift manner. So all stakeholders decided to agree on this ultimately,” Nishantha Ranatunga, the Secretary of SLC said.

The Premier season will now kick off from December 1. - File Pic.

The new proposal will see 20 teams playing in a combined top tier segment at the Inter-Club Premier Cricket Tournament, starting from the first week of December, with NCC and Police SC being demoted respectively from Tiers A and B. This will be played as a three-day, first class tournament and it will remain as Sri Lanka’s only first class domestic competition in the future. After the end of the first year, six teams from the Premier segment will be demoted to an intended Emerging segment, which will feature 10 teams with four teams coming to the top from the Sara segment. This too will be played as a three-day tournament but will not be considered first class. By 2015 all segments will be confined to 10 teams each with the bottom seed of the Premier and top seed of the Emerging segments playing a four-day relegation match. According to a club representative the meeting that took place was all in all “productive.”

“It is virtually the same proposal but as we opposed earlier, it needs time to be implemented. You cannot rush into things. This is exactly what we wanted and it’s good to see this proposal being taken up on a steady pace,” the source stated.

The Chairman of the Tournament Committee, Roshan Iddamalgoda told the Sunday Times that they intend to kick off the Premier tournament by December 1 with the limited overs competition, but the final confirmation will be declared after Tuesday.

“The Tournament Committee will meet on Tuesday to discuss matters relating to the competition,” he said.

New proposals as agreed by the SLC and clubsTier A / B Clubs will be amalgamated (Premier Tournament) for the season 2012/13
Total of 20 teams will participate (Police will be demoted to Sara –NCC demoted to Tier B from Tier A)
Premier tournament will be the only first class tournament, (3 day)
20 Teams will be divided in to 2 groups. The teams will be grouped according to the points earned in the previous tournament. Example – Highest point earner will be top of group ‘A’ and second place will first of group B and the third will be second of group ‘A’
Top team of each group will play a final. (4 Days)
3 bottom teams from each group will be demoted (1st Year)
Total remaining teams will be 14 in 2013/14 – (After completion of 2012/13)
Six team which will get demoted from year 2012/ 2013 will play in the emerging tournament which would be also a 3 day tournament.
Four teams will get promoted from Sara to play in the emerging tournament in year 2013 / 2014
Relegation match will be played to decide demotion / promotion in the second year
From 2013/14 season 2 teams from each group will be demoted (2nd year). (Premier Tournament)
Remaining teams in Premier will be 12 TEAMS for 2014/15. (Two Teams will get promoted from emerging tournament)
From 2015/16 season onwards the Premier Championship will be strictly confined to 10 teams. The promotion / relegation shall be done as stipulated above. The tournament structure shall be each team playing 9 games as popularly requested
Sara and Donovan tournament will be played separately.
Year 2013 / 2014 the Sara and Donovan will be amalgamated. The premier teams will have the option of playing the second eleven.
Premier teams will play the limited over and the T20 at the same level.
Premier league tournament will be considered as the bench mark for all demotions in all premier formats.
Above will be Subject to EXCO approvalProposals brought forward originally 

Tier ‘A’ clubs to be retained in the year 2012/2013. No relegation to take place. Winner from tier ‘B’ to be included along with three outstation clubs. This would be the only first class club tournament.
Tier ‘B’ clubs to play as per the current format. (Eight Teams) Two day.
One team to be promoted from Sara for the 2012/2013 season to Tier ‘B’.
Premier ‘A’ first round games to be played on league basis and to be divided into two groups. (Six games per team)
Top four teams from each group to play in the super league.
The bottom three teams will play in a plate round to determine the club to be relegated.
The relegation shall not apply for Kandy, Galle and Kurunegala teams for the next three years. In the event one of the outstation teams or all three teams have the lease not of points the team immediately above will play the relegation match with the winner of Tier ‘B’ to determine the club to get relegated. (The relegation match will last for three days.)
The bottom team of tier “A’ and the winner of the premier ‘B to have a playoff to decide relegation.
Sara and Donovan will be amalgamated and divided into 8 or 10 groups depending on the No. of teams.
The last team of each group will be relegated to play in division three of the following year.
Tier ‘A’ clubs will be given the option of including a second team in this group and will not either get promoted or demoted for a period of five years.
The under 23 tournament in existence to be made an under 22 competition and made into a provincial tournament and played over three days. (Under 23 club tournament is not recommended)
Provincial one day, four day and the T20 to be played as per the current format of the T20. (Names as per the SLPL tournament)
First Class clubs to be clustered into seven provinces in order to select the teams and to for the clubs have ownership and governance.
Tournaments scheduled to be continued for a period of five years irrelevant of the FTP and availability of players.

 

 




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