Tournament Director confident LPL can go ahead

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Following the successful completion of the Lanka Premier League (LPL) Player Draft on Monday, Tournament Director Ravin Wickramaratne said that he was confident that the Lanka Premier League will go ahead as scheduled from 21 November to 13 December.

“I don’t see a problem in conducting the tournament. What they (health authorities) said was 14 days quarantine, after that it is spectator-free stadiums. We have to create a bubble and then from there bubble to bubble,” said Wickramaratne.

“At the moment, as far as we know, we can go ahead with the tournament, otherwise we wouldn’t have held the Player Draft. Anything untoward happening is beyond our control.”  

The 23 matches to be played over 15 days will take place at the Pallekele International Stadium and the Mahinda Rajapaksa International Stadium in Sooriyawewa.

The Player Draft was not fully complete as four of the five participating teams have still to fill in their squads with two overseas players each.

The teams that have not completed the 20-member squad have been given the option to select overseas players outside the Draft and inform SLC of the move by November 1.

“They were given an option to negotiate with foreign players. The franchise will have to speak to the foreign player and come back to us by 1 November. If they want a better player they can always come back. Only two positions have been kept vacant for foreign players.”

Only Galle Gladiators have filled their quota of six foreign players, the remaining four teams – Colombo Kings, Dambulla Hawks, Jaffna Stallions and Kandy Tuskers – picked only four at Monday’s Draft and left two positions vacant to be filled later.

West Indies superstar Chris Gayle, who was not among the list of players initially for the Player Draft, made a surprise appearance.

“Gayle was not initially supposed to come because of the 14-day quarantine, but now of course he has changed his mind and he is willing to come because it is from bubble to bubble. He is currently in Dubai taking part in the IPL. Whoever is coming from bubble to bubble it is seven days of quarantine,” said Wickramaratne.The highest figure a Marquee or Icon Player fetched was Rs. 60,000. The rest of the categories were:  Diamond - Rs. 50,000, Gold - Rs. 40,000, Classic - Rs. 25,000, Emerging - Rs. 10,000 and, Supplementary - Rs. 3,000.

“If Gayle is coming as a Marquee player our cap is Rs. 60,000, but if you want to take him for a higher figure that is entirely left to the franchisee,” explained Wickramaratne.

Gayle was brought by a Kandy Tuskers side that also have fast bowlers Liam Plunkett (England), Wahab Riaz (Pakistan) and Afghanistan’s 21-year-old Naveen-ul-Haq.

SLC CEO Ashley de Silva said that they would be seeking approval for the LPL separately from the Health Ministry.

“We are going ahead according to the guidelines that were given by the Health Ministry for the bilateral tours. That is how we are proceeding right now, but if it has to be amended then the amended version we will share it with the franchise owners,” said De Silva. “There are players who would come from bubble to bubble. Right now they are in a bubble in IPL. Those are the things which we have to discuss with the health authorities – whether they should go through the 14 days.”

There will be 30 foreign players in action during the 15-day tournament.