SLPL : Sri Lanka Premier League Very Much Less Lucrative Than The Indian Premier League

The news of the new premier league T/20 cricket tournament which propped up abruptly was a surprise to Sri Lanka’s cricket fraternity. It is not a new concept, but conducted not in a massive scale like the Indian premier league. There will be 33 well known cricketers who have been invited. Most of them are from India and Pakistan, while there are a quite a lot of famous players selected from West Indies, South Africa and one player each from New Zealand and Bangladesh. The number of teams that are participating have been restricted to 7 Provincial teams only although Sri Lanka comprises of 9 Provinces.

The players from the overseas countries have consented to play in the SLPL tournament which is of a short duration of 18 days only and only 24 matches are to be played. The tournament is sponsored by a Singapore based company ‘Somerset entertainment Ventures’, organised by our SLC. The player who is paid the highest unlike in the IPL is only US$ 30,000/-while the Sri Lankan players would be paid a small sum as match fees. That is why this could be called’ less lucrative’.

The other significant feature is about the venues. Unlike in the IPL where the matches were played at several venues, all over India, the SLPL matches are to be played at just solitary venue. That is at the R.Premadasa International Cricket stadium. The reason for that it is learnt that is due to sort out various logistical factors that have to be met.

It is very unfortunate that the cricket followers in the hill country and in the Southern Province would be deprived of the opportunity of witnessing these the shortest version T/20 matches as they are played in Colombo.The SLC should have given this matter more thought as two new stadiums were built at Pallekelle and Sooriyawewa for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 co-hosted by Sri Lanka as well. The cricket fans would gather in large numbers to these venues as particularly the T/20 is the shortest version of the game today and is very popular and has come to stay drawing a lot of interest. The success of a any cricket tournament or for that matter a Test or an ODI depends in the presence of a large audience.

The SLC, the organizers of the inaugural SLPL tournament are confident that the spectator interest would be at a very high ebb. It has been confirmed that two matches are scheduled on several days, with play to commence at 4pm and 8 pm. On exceptional days there will be only one match and on such days play is due to commence at 8 pm.

By Sunil Thenabadu © SLPLT20.Co