Reacting strongly on the snub of some of the high profile national Icons from the Lanka Premier League (LPL) sold players list in the draft which took place last night, the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) Wednesday took a decision to include those cricketers into the five franchises, Cricket Age exclusively learns. The latest development came after majority of cricket fans and media showed their anger and disappointment over LPL franchises reluctant to buy some of the most prominent Sri Lankan superstars like Angelo Mathews, Kusal Perera, Dhananjaya De Silva, Akila Dhananjaya, Dinesh Chandimal. More surprisingly, exept Mathews, all these other players were part of the ongoing T20 World Cup Squad.
In addition, other big names like Oshada Fernando, Minod Bhanuka, Praveen Jayawickrama, Kasun Rajitha were also gone unsold.
“Today, it was decided that snubed national players, included some of those who played in the ongoing T20 World Cup, will be drafted back into the LPL teams” an insider at SLC told Cricket Age.
The players, who will be drafted back, are – Kusal Perera, Dinesh Chandimal, Akila Dhananjaya, Dhananjaya De Silva, Shiran Fernando, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Ashan Priyanjan and Minod Bhanuka.
“The decision was taken for the betterment of the game in the Island and in the best interest of the Brand LPL, as these players are among top performers. Accordingly, tournament’s official broadcasting right holder IPG will talk to franchises for the inclusion of these players. Same will be applied on foreign players” the SLC insider added.
