After weeks of attempts, talks and deliberation, batting legend Aravinda de Silva led cricket advisory committee has decided to stay away from the second edition of Lanka Premier League (LPL), Cricket Age reliably learns.
The SLC had recently announced that it would go ahead with the second edition, as planned from July 30-August 22, dispelling fears that the tournament may be postponed due to the rising number of Covid cases in the country. To make things worse, Sri Lanka on Thursday detected the highly transmittable Delta or B.1.617.2 variant of COVID-19 in five patients, amid a stubborn third wave persisting through a near-month-long lockdown in the country.
According to the sources, the cricket advisory committee, which also consists of legendary Roshan Mahanama, Muttiah Muralitharan, and Kumar Sangakkara, was on the opinion of overseeing the marque domestic T20 league through an entirely separate committee. Even country’s Sports Minister Namal Rajapaksa had indicated of appointing a committee to run the tournament. However, now the Aravinda and his colleagues have decided to not get involved in the tournament.
“There are many reasons, we don’t want to disclose, but the committee has pulled out. Let SLC run the show and make it a bigger success than the previous year” an Insider at cricket advisory committee told Cricket Age.
The SLC will begin player registration on Monday (June 21) with the player draft expected to be held shortly after closing the player registration on June 28.
