LPL player registration to start on Monday
Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) will begin player registration for its marque domestic T20 league–Lanka Premier League (LPL) on Monday (June 21) with the player draft expected to be held shortly after closing the player registration on June 28.
SLC recently announced that it would go ahead with the second edition of the tournament as planned from July 30-August 22, dispelling fears that the tournament may be postponed due to the rising number of covid cases in the country.
Sri Lanka has seen a spike in the virus with daily cases now exceeding over 2000 despite maintaining a partial lockdown, increasing fears of a postponement of the tournament. But SLC is rolling out their plans to have it on schedule.
“We will go ahead with the tournament as planned,” said Ravin Wickremaratne–SLC Vice President who was the tournament director of the first edition. “There were various suggestions from various quarters to postpone it but we are not keen to do so. We need to have the continuity of the tournament to win the confidence of the franchises and the sponsors.”
SLC is yet to appoint a tournament director for this year’s edition with the Sports Minister indicating his intention of appointing a ‘committee’ to run the tournament. No such appointment is being made so far.
“We are opening the player registration on Monday and will keep it open up until June 28. The players can register using our online portal. Thereafter, probably in the first week of July we will have the player draft,” Wickremaratne explained.
The Dubai-based Innovative Production Group (IPG) owns the event management rights of the tournament after it agreed to pay SLC a sum closer to $ 2 million for each edition of the tournament. IGP on the other hand earned its money through franchisee payments which was around $ 600,000 and sponsorships.
It is not clear whether the previous owners of the five franchises would come forward this time but Wickremaratne said the IPG is talking them.
“Galle and Jaffna are on board and we are confident the rest of the owners will come forward this year too. Anyway it’s IPG’s responsibility and we are trying to make all the logistical arrangements to hold a successful event like we did last year,” he explained.
Kandy, Dambulla and Colombo are the other three teams of the five-team tournament. SLC has decided to play all matches in Hambantota, as they did in the previous occasion, to ensure the safety of all those who are involved.
“Initially, we were thinking of using three venues, but given the current situation, we are compelled to play it all in Hambantota. Logistically it’s easy for us to have the tournament there,” he explained.
Meanwhile, the Cricket Technical Advisory Committee headed by Aravinda de Silva, who also functions as SLC’s Cricket Committee, have distanced themselves from this year’s tournament, given the little time they have to make any recommendations.
“We have asked them to handle the tournament this year as we have no time to make any recommendations or come up with a new sustainable model,” said Aravinda de Silva, who believes the tournament needs a financially sustainable model.
The Jaffna Stallions won the inaugural edition last year and, according to SLC, there was a massive following on television and other digital platforms. SLC said 135 million viewers watched the final between the Stallions and the Galle Gladiators across all platforms.