Winners to get US$ 100,000 in LPL

The third edition of Lanka Premier League will get underway on the 6th of December with Suriyawewa, Pallekele and RPS hosting the games. The first five games of the tournament will be worked off down south before the tournament shifts to the hill capital where nine games will be played. The teams will return to Colombo for the knockout stage of the five team competition. The winners will take home US$ 100,000 with the runners-up getting a price money of US$ 50,000.

Former Head Coach Mickey Arthur will return to Sri Lanka taking charge of Galle Gladiators franchise. Jaffna, Colombo, Dambulla and Kandy are the other four franchises and their overseas signings and coacing staff will be announced shortly.The organizers have named former greats Sir Viv Richards, Wasim Akram and Sanath Jayasuriya as the brand ambassadors of the competition.

The tournament sanctioned by the International Cricket Council has been popular among local fans. Although the fans mostly have been restricted to watch the action on television due to Covid, this time around the interest is expected to soar with gates being opened from the initial stage itself.

The participation of some very good overseas talent has added colour to the event.LPL has helped Sri Lanka identify new talents as well as several players who excelled in the competition have gone onto become regulars in Sri Lanka’s T-20 side.

Jaffna defended the title that they had won in the first year. Although the franchise’s ownership changed for the second edition, the core players remained the same and Thisara Perera lead the side to back to back titles.This year the plan was to conduct the event before the T-20 World Cup, however, due to the logistics the tournament was postponed to December.

SLC has outsourced the tournament to Dubai based IPG and despite challenges, the event has made good progress since it was launched in 2021 amidst the COVID pandemic.