Sri Lanka To Go Ahead With Sri Lanka Premier League

The Sri Lankan board has announced that they are going ahead with their T20 league in the month of August, in spite of doubts lingering about support from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). The board secretary Nishant Ranatunga has informed that BCCI has formally refused to make the Indian players available for the tournament due to the crammed schedule of the national team. The same issues had cropped up last year too, due to which the Sri Lankan Premiere League (SLPL) had to be cancelled. Why the BCCI won't let their leading domestic cricketers like Ambati Rayudu, Shikhar Dhawan etc who don't make it to the national team to participate is a pertinent question though.

The SLPL will consist of seven teams, each owned by a company. Tillakaratne Dilshan, Muttiah Muralitharan, Mahela Jayawardena, Kumar Sangakkara and Lasith Malinga would be five of the icon players. The icon players for rest of the two teams would be international cricketing stars. The squad for each team would consist of eighteen local and six international players. And the playing eleven cannot have more than four foreign players. Additionally it is mandatory for each team to have at least one U-21 player in the team.

Apparently, the SLPLs contract with Somerset Entertainment Ventures has caused BCCI to give the league the cold shoulder, because Lalit Modi has links with the company.