Sri Lanka cricket confirmed last week that the second edition of the Lanka Premier League (LPL) will go ahead as scheduled from 30th July to 22nd August.
Speaking to DailyFT SLC CEO Ashley De Silva said that they are in the process of finalising all arrangements with the event holder Dubai-based IPG (Innovation Production Group). “We are in the process of making all the arrangements and having discussions with the event holder and we are trying to finalise the plans quickly as possible,” said De Silva.
Last time LPL featured five teams, teams representing Colombo, Kandy, Galle, Jaffna and Dambulla. At the end of the last year’s edition SLC revealed their plan to extend this number to six including a team from Trincomalee. Despite the plans, SLC CEO said to DailyFT that they would stick with only five for the second edition also.
Commenting on the venue for the 2021 edition, “With regard to the venue we are having some discussions internally, we need to also discuss it with our event holder before we decide on it. Most probably we would stick to Hambantota, which is one option. We have to take a decision on whether we are going to play the matches at two locations or one. If it is two, it will be at Kandy and Hambantota. If it is one, we will have to take a call on the venue,” he said.
Speaking on reports on postponement of LPL due to COVID situation in the country, Ashely said “It was anyway initially planned to be held in July-August but we were wondering whether we will have sufficient time to get it organised. Our event holder they said that they are ready to go, therefore we took a decision to go ahead with the August window.”
“The window that is available to us is July-August. That is the date we have reserved when we drew up our FTP (Future Tours Program). It is something which we have reserved for the next five years. When we discuss and schedule matches in the FTP we kind of keep that window locked down. We don’t schedule any games with any other country but keep it free for us to play the LPL,” continued De Silva.
“We cannot be shifting it around whether all the overseas players are going to be available or not, we have to go ahead with it. There are so many players playing T20 cricket around the world so it is a matter of finding about 25 to 30 players. It is not difficult for us to get 25-30 good players to take part in this tournament. All the local cricketers will be available,” he said.
“The player draft – we will outsource that operation for an organisation to handle it. But getting the confirmation of the players, SLC will do it. Talking to the international players will be done by SLC. We will then tell the event holder the players who are available for the player draft.”
Last edition saw few big names including Chris Gayle, Lasith Malinga, Faf du Plessis pulling out from the tournament after the draft but SLC managed to find replacements and kickoff the tournament with 33 overseas players.
Compiled with Inputs from DailyFT