Sri Lanka Cricket postpone the Lankan Premier League

The ambitious plans of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) have dealt a huge blow as the Lankan Premier League (LPL) has been postponed. Although the board hasn’t confirmed the news, the talk of the event not happening has been doing the rounds since the elections of SLC was held by a court ruling in the month of May. However, the Tournament Director and former Sri Lankan cricketer Russel Arnold has confirmed the development in his latest social media update.

Organising a franchise-based T20 tournament had been the plan of the former SLC chief Thilanga Sumathipala. The proceedings gained momentum after he received a strong backing from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Reportedly, they had also verbally committed to free certain players and the names of Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan and Harbhajan Singh were doing the rounds which would have made the event more profitable.

Arnold’s tweet

Russell Arnold took to his official Twitter account and confirmed that the LPL has been postponed while not indicating the exact period when it will commence. “Hi Folks !!! The Lankan Premier League which was to be played in Aug/Sep has been postponed. #Uncontrollables @OfficialSLC,” his tweet read.

Hi Folks !!! The Lankan Premier League which was to be played in Aug/Sep has been postponed. #Uncontrollables @OfficialSLC

— Russel Arnold (@RusselArnold69) July 6, 2018

SLC was set to make huge profits from the tournament as they were going to own the franchises and only sell the branding rights. The board had also allocated the slot for the next 10 years for the event.

“We would have loved to make profits, no doubt about that. But it was not going to happen in the first few years for practical reasons. But once we had built up a product, we could market it. More than profit making, through Lankan Premier League, what we intended was creating a competitive environment and raise the standards of domestic cricket,” the source was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.

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