Major League T20 inter-club tournament begins tomorrow

 SSC will defend their Major League T20 inter-club title they won last year

• Return of players from IPL will give added spice

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

The Major League T20 inter-club tournament that commences tomorrow with the participation of the 26 first-class clubs will be of special significance as it will be used as a guideline to pick the local players for the Lanka Premier League (LPL) Player Draft. 

As a result, a high standard of T20 cricket can be expected with the majority of the national cricketers’ keen to attract the franchises for inclusion into their squads.

The third edition of the LPL is due to commence in the final week of July.

Sri Lanka Cricket has made it imperative that all the players participate in the domestic tournaments if they intend to gain selection to the national team and in this aspect the Major League T20 will be of importance to players vying for places, not only for the LPL franchises but also, the Asia Cup (T20) in Sri Lanka and the T20 World Cup in Australia to follow.

The tournament will have an added flavour when the six Sri Lankan T20 cricketers return from playing in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL). Maheesh Theekshana who is turning out for Chennai Super Kings will play for Army SC who were runner-up last year, Wanindu Hasaranga (Royal Challengers Bangalore) for CCC, Dushmantha Chameera (Lucknow Super Giants), Chamika Karunaratne (Kolkata Knight Riders) and Matheesha Pathirana (Chennai Super Kings) for NCC, and Bhanuka Rajapaksa (Punjab Kings) for BRC. Karunaratne is currently with the Sri Lanka Test side in Bangladesh having been released by KKR.

The IPL is in the last stages of the qualifying league and teams like Chennai Super Kings, Punjab Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders are out of the Play-offs which means the Lankan players appearing for those teams will be available early for the Major League T20. The others will return at the completion of the IPL towards the end of the month.

The Major League T20 tournament will run till 6 June when the final will be played.

Champions SSC will commence the defence of their Major League T20 title when they play Badureliya CC at the CCC grounds in the opening match of the 2022 season tomorrow.

A total of six matches are down for decision in the opening weekend with last year’s losing finalist Army SC also due to make another attempt at winning the title when they take on Navy SC at the SSC grounds.

Army SC lost to SSC by 29 runs in a low scoring final at the SSC last year.

Also coming out in the opening weekend are losing semi-finalists CCC and Kurunegala YCC. Kurunegala YCC are playing Bloomfield at the CCC grounds, while CCC confront Lankan CC at the SSC grounds.

The other two matches down for decision tomorrow at Colts grounds are: Saracens SC v Air Force SC in the morning and Moors SC v Galle CC in the afternoon.

Each of the three venues will host two matches – one in the morning and the other in the afternoon.

The Groupings of the 26 teams are as follows:

nGROUP A: CCC, SSC, Saracens SC, Air Force SC, Badureliya CC, Lankan CC, Ace Capital CC

nGROUP B: NCC, Ragama CC, BRC, Panadura SC, Chilaw Marians CC, Nugegoda SWC

nGROUP C: Tamil Union, Negombo CC, Colts, Police SC, Kandy Customs CC, Sebastianites

nGROUP D: Army SC, Kurunegala YCC, Moors SC, Galle CC, Bloomfield, Navy SC