Sports leagues have emerged as a good platform for upcoming players and the new addition to this is Lanka Premier league.It is a T 20 franchise based cricket league to be played in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka cricket board will be managing this tournament which is scheduled from 26 th November 2020 to 16 th December 2020.My circle 11 is the title sponsor for 2020 edition of the league.The inaugural edition will feature five teams,all named on various Sri Lankan cities.Earlier scheduled in August,it was postponed due to pandemic several times.
Top 4 teams after league stage will get qualified for playoffs.It will be played in robin round and knock out format.Mahinda Rajpaksa International Cricket Stadium popularly known as MRIC stadium at Hambantota will host all the matches.Considering the impact of pandemic,it was decided to play all matches at one stadium.
The inaugural match is scheduled on 26 th November between Colombo Kings vs Kandy Tusker’s.Angelo mathews is the captain of Colombo Kings while Kusal Perera will be leading Kandy Tusker’s.Other three teams are Dambulla Viiking,Galle gladiator’s and Jaffana Stallions.They will be lead by Dasun Shanaka, Shahid Afridi and Thisara Perera respectively.
The draft of players in LPL was announced through zoom and had many big names of cricketing world.However players like Faf du Plessis,Mohammad hafiz,David Miller,Wahab Riaz,Lasith malinga pulled out of league due to either fitness issues or for national teams.This edition will feature four Indian players too.Irrfan pathan,Manpreet Gony,Munaf Patel and Sudeep Tyagi will be playing in LPL.
Lanka Premier League is seen as a good platform for emerging Sri Lankan players to show their talent and is hoped would produce same results as IPL did for India.It also has potential of reviving finances of Sri Lankan Cricket boeard through this franchise based cricket league.All the action of LPL can be caught live from 26 th November 2020.
