Sri Lanka Premiere League players draft is slated for later today. The five franchisees will cometogether on a zoom call for the draft along with Sri Lanka Cricket and league promoters Innovative Production Group (IPG).
IPG CEO Anil Mohan had told the newswire.lk that all the five teams have been sold. However, franchisees details except for the Galle team owner are not disclosed as of now.
The promoters and Sri Lanka Cricket had released the league logo on Friday last.
Also read: LPL unveil new logo with roaring Lankan lion as central theme
The Galle-based team, Galle Gladiators, has been acquired by the Pakistan Super League team Quetta Gladiators owner company. The other four teams will represent the cities of Colombo, Kandy, Dambulla and Jaffna.
The draft has been slated to start from 4:00 pm today (Monday). The digital meeting will only be accessible to the franchisees, the SLC and the IPG.
The player pool includes a total of 270 cricketers, including 105 from overseas.
Noted sports presenter Charu Sharma along with Roshan Abhisinge will conduct the draft virtually.
The SLC or the promoters have released no further details about the draft until the Monday afternoon.
South African cricketers Vernon Philander and Temba Bavuma; England’s Liam Plunkett; Brendan Taylor, Craig Ervine, Kyle Jarvis and Sean Williams; Sikandar Raza from Zimbabwe; Kevin O’Brien and Boyd Rankin from Ireland; Shai Hope and Jonathan Carter from West Indies; Asif Ali, Faheem Ashraf, Hassan Ali, Ifthikar Ahmed, Junaid Khan, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Amir, Sarfraz Ahmed, Shoaib Malik, Imad Wasim, Wahab Riaz and Abid Ali from Pakistan and Asghar Afghan, Dawlat Zadran, Gulbadin Naib, Hazratullah Zazai, Karim Janat, Najibullah Zadran, Samiullah Shinwari from Afghanistan are among the overseas talent pool.
The list of retired cricketers, who are still active in professional cricket, includes Darren Sammy, Johnson Charles, Dwayne Smith, Fidel Edwards, Ravi Rampaul, Jason Mohammad (all West Indies); Todd Astle and Neil Broom (both New Zealand); Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Samit Patel and Steve Finn (all England); Richard Levi (South Africa); Graeme Cremer (Zimbabwe); Ryan ten Doeschate (The Netherlands); Mohammad Shazad (Afghanistan) and Umar Gul, Anwar Ali, Imran Nazir, Kamran Akmal, Khurram Manzoor, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Irfan, Mohammad Sami, Sharjeel Khan and Sohail Tanveer (all Pakistan).
IPG Anil Mohan confirmed to SportzFront that from India Ifran Pathan, Munaf Patel, Pragyan Ojha and veteran Pravin Tambe’s names figure in the players’ lift.
The Pallekele International Cricket Stadium in Kandy and Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium in Hambantota will host all the 23 LPL matches between November 21 and December 13.