Sri Lanka Premier League Twenty20 to be revived
Uva Next won the last SLPL T20 champiosnhip
It indicates that the once aborted Sri Lanka Premier League T-20 tournament will be revived and will take top billing in the local cricket calendar when Sri Lanka Cricket reorganises its tournament structure from the 2016/17 seasons.
An SLC insider told the Sunday Times “Yes, we are in the process of exploring the possibilities of reviving this tournament and at the moment we are looking for franchises to back this process.
“We will be restructuring the entire tournament structure and we will be taking the first step towards that following the Sinhala Aurudu break. There we will put our heads together and look at ways of making our tournaments more competitive and constructive and be more conducive to the needs of the International cricket demands”. The insider said that the window that they are looking for this tournament in August-September this year and once again the tournament will be linked with the Provincial cricket tournament, which is going to be the top most cricket competition in the country.
The tournament is billed to be played in the same lines of the Indian Premier League tournament, where a number of foreign players would be contracted to take part.
Initially the Sri Lanka Premier League tournament was cenceptualised in the same lines of the highly successful Indian Premier League (IPL) T-20 tournament in 2011, but was made a short appearance in the 2011 season.
The teams that took part in the tournament were Basnahira Cricket Dundee from the Western Province playing under D.M. Dilshan with Duleep Mendis as its manager. The owner of the team was Indian Cricket Dundee Limited — (price $4.33 million).
Kandurata Warriors from the Central Province playing under Sanath Jayasuriya with Romesh Kaluwitharana as its coach. The owner of the team was Number One Sports Consulting Private Limited (Price $4.98 million).
Nagenahira Nagas from the Eastern Province owned by Varun Beverages Lanka Private Limited at a cost of $3.22 million, playing under Angelo Mathews with Shane Duff as manager.
Ruhuna Royals from the Southern Province owned by Pearl Overseas Limited at a cost of $4.6 million, playing under Lasith Malinga with Waqar Younis as Manager.
Uthura Rudras from the Northern Province playing under Jehan Mubarak with Tom Moody acting manager, owned by Rudra Sports Private Limited at a cost of $3.4 million.
Uva Next from the Uva Province owned by Success Sports Private Limited at a cost of $4.6 million, led by Thilina Kandamby with Naveed Nawaz as manager.
Wayamba United from the North Western Province owned by Wadhawan Holdings Private Limited at a cost of $5.02 million, led by Mahela Jayawardene with Trevor Bayliss as manager.
The final team Kandurata Maroons also from the Central Province was not brought over and Sri Lanka Cricket acted as its owner. Lahiru Thirimanne was the captain of this team with Chaminda Vass working as manager.
However the halfway through the tournament there were problems cropping up and the SLC who signed the deal with Somerset Entertainment Ventures to organise the tournament ran into several legal tangles and the tournament with short history one year amidst legal tangles. The top four ranking sides progressed to the knockout stage of semi-finals followed by a final at R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo. Uva Next beat Nagenahira Nagas to become champions.