While Sri Lanka Cricket is busy in continuously playing meaningless domestic tournaments one after other, in a major exodus, more than 60 domestic players are set to miss the 3-day First Class Club tournament this year in order to play in various UK leagues, Cricket Age exclusively learns.
After a two year gap, the traditional 3-day First Class Club tournament is finally scheduled to be played from the third week of June. Now, as league cricket in UK also kicks off in the same month, it has left dozens of Sri Lanka domestic cricketers in a state of bother! However, in this scenario, majority of fringe players have opted for league cricket in UK.
“It’s a ridiculous scheduling once again to play 3-day tournament in June, ignoring the fact that every year a large number of players flies to play UK leagues” a Cricket expert in Sri Lanka told Cricket Age.
An UK league season secures 1.5 to 2 million for these players. Then, they can earn more by playing in Australia. To counter this, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has increased match fees significantly now – 1.60 lakh for a 4-day National Super League (NSL) match and 60 thousands for 50-overs game! However, as nowadays domestic cricket tournaments In Sri Lanka are all about manipulation (especially in selection), influence and dominance of few elite clubs, fringe players sees no future in such tournaments.
“Out of approximately 500 players, only 100 players are playing in these NSL leagues. There also, a so called team Colombo fields 9 Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC) players in playing 11. It gives a direct meeasge to fringe and outstation players that their chances have already been snatched. So, for their livelihood, playing in UK leagues is the only option” Sri Lanka expert added.
However, they will be ended up losing a chance to play in Lanka Premier League (LPL), due to SLC’s new decree that only those who plays 80% domestic cricket will be eligible for the league.
It could have been avoided with a sensible scheduling. However, when SLC’s tournament committee was brainstorming over the scheduling and trying it best to avoid the clash, Chairman of Technical Advisory Committee (TAC), which has the final say in everything in Sri Lanka Cricket these days, Chairman Aravinda de Silva was seen in Australia with Johan Jayasinghe!
