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Lanka Premier League

Logo of Lanka Premier League
Countries	Sri Lanka
Administrator	Sri Lanka Cricket
Format	Twenty20
First edition	2020
Latest edition	2024
Next edition	2025
Tournament format	Double Round-robin and playoffs
Number of teams	5
Current champion	Jaffna franchise (4th title)
Most successful	Jaffna franchise (4 titles)
Most runs	Avishka Fernando (1,544)
Most wickets	Wanindu Hasaranga (72)
Website	lankapremierleaguet20.com

The Lanka Premier League (abbreviated as LPL; Sinhala: ලංකා ප්‍රිමියර් ලීග්, Tamil: லங்கா பிரீமியர் லீக்) is a professional franchise cricket league established in 2020 in Sri Lanka. Matches are played using the Twenty20 cricket format by five teams named after Sri Lankan cities. The league was intended to commence in 2018, but repeatedly postponed by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC). The inaugural edition took place in 2020 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

As of 2024, there have been five seasons of the tournament. The current title holder team is Jaffna Kings, who won their fourth title in the 2024 Lanka Premier League by defeating Galle Marvels in the final.

History

The first season of the league was initially planned to be held from 18 August to 10 September 2018, but this was postponed multiple times due to administrative issues within Sri Lanka Cricket. In June 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, SLC announced the tournament would start on 28 August 2020, with 70 overseas players showing an interest in playing in the league. In August 2020, Ravin Wickramaratne, the Vice President of SLC was officially appointed as the director of the tournament. After being rescheduled due to pandemic related restrictions, the first season began on 26 November 2020.

In May 2022, Samantha Dodanwala was officially appointed as the LPL tournament director. The third edition was scheduled to take place in August 2022, but due to the ongoing Sri Lankan economic crisis and the resultant 2022 Sri Lankan protests, was postponed despite the player draft having already been held.

Teams

Current teams

Franchise history

Organisation

Player acquisition, squad composition and salaries

In the league's first three seasons, teams chose players using a draft system, having previously had the opportunity to sign a limited number of players directly. For the 2023 season, an auction was introduced. Each franchise was allowed to directly sign two local players and two overseas players ahead of the auction. Each franchise operated with a salary cap of US$1 million, US500,000 of which could be spent on direct signings with the remaining spent in the auction.

Governing Council

Sri Lanka Cricket, which is responsible for all elements of the tournament, established a governing council to administer the league. Members of the governing council include Sri Lanka Cricket CEO Ashley de Silva. The marketing and organisation rights to the LPL were awarded to an Indian-owned Dubai-based company, Innovative Production Group (IPG) in 2020.

Finances

The inaugural edition of the league reached a cumulative audience of 557 million through TV, digital-social media and traditional media. According to the 2021 Annual Report of Sri Lanka Cricket, The league generated revenue of LKR334 million in 2020, LKR463 million in 2021, LKR839 million in 2022.

Source: Newswire.lk, June 2021

Criticism

Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe raised the issue of the need to regulate Lanka Premier League franchise owners and sponsors during the parliamentary adjournment debate on Sri Lanka Cricket's expenditure for the 2022 ICC Men's T20 World Cup. Some of the 2023 Lanka Premier League sponsors included gambling companies and unauthorized foreign exchange trading platforms. Minister of Justice Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe claimed that B-Love Network, the owners of the Kandy franchise, is banned in Sri Lanka.

Seasons

Out of the five franchises that have played in the league, the Jaffna franchise has won three titles while the Kandy franchise has won only one title. Jaffna Stallions won the inaugural season, defeating Galle Gladiators by 53 runs in the final. The following season, Jaffna Kings beat Galle by 23 runs and in 2022 defeated Colombo Stars by 2 wickets to win their third consecutive title.

Finals

Team playing records

As of 17 July 2024

Source: CricInfo

Notes:

• Tie & W and Tie & L indicates the matches tied and then won by or lost by super over respectively.

Team's performance

Records

As of 4 October 2024

• Source: records extracted from ESPNcricinfo

Broadcasters

Country	TV Channel	Online Streaming
Sri Lanka	Monara TV Star Sports 2 ThePapare TV	Dialog ViU App PEO Mobile App ThePapare.com
Australia	Fox Sports	—
Bangladesh	T Sports	—
India	Star Sports	FanCode
New Zealand	Sky Sport NZ	—
Pakistan	A Sports	Tapmad
South Africa	—	SytxSports.com
Rest of the world	—	Monara TV YouTube SLC YouTube

See also

• List of Lanka Premier League centuries
• List of Lanka Premier League five-wicket hauls

Notes

1. Sri Lanka Cricket severed ties with B-Love Network. Management of the team passed on to the tournament organisers, the IPG Group.
2. exchange rate of 1 EUR = 217.4295 LKR used here for 2020 season.
3. exchange rate of 1 EUR = 224.9337 LKR used here for 2021 season.
4. exchange rate of 1 EUR = 384.3541 LKR used here for 2022 season.
5. exchange rate of 1 EUR = 336.3600 LKR used here for 2023 season.

References

1. Most runs, Records in Lanka Premier League, CricInfo. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
2. "Most career wickets". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
3. "SLC optimistic about inaugural Lanka Premier League despite concerns over border reopening". Zee News. 2 July 2020. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
4. "Lanka Premier League 2020: Sri Lanka Cricket to confirm fixtures after decision on India series". The Sports Rush. 2 July 2020. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
5. ^ "Sri Lanka Cricket to launch Lankan Premier League 2018". ThePapare.com. 16 February 2018. Retrieved 25 March 2018.
6. "Series results". ESPNcricinfo. 2023. Retrieved 16 August 2023.
7. Records in Lanka Premier League ESPNCricinfo
8. "SLC set to relaunch Sri Lanka Premier League in August 2018; Nidahas Trophy to act as launch pad". FirstCricket. 19 February 2018. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
9. "Sunday Times – Cricket: Sri Lanka to launch LPL with five-year window in August–September". www.sundaytimes.lk. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
10. "SLC shambles lead to postponement of Lankan Premier League". ESPNCricinfo. Retrieved 11 July 2018.
11. "Lankan Premier League (LPL) postponed". ThePapare.com. 6 July 2018. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
12. "Lankan Premier League revival in the works – SLC secretary Mohan De Silva". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
13. "Sri Lanka plan Lanka Premier League in August". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
14. "Lanka Premier League to start on August 28". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
15. "Lanka Premier League: Irfan Pathan in pool of 70 foreign players for draft". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 31 July 2020.
16. "Sri Lanka Cricket Vice President Ravin Wickramaratne officially appointed LPL Tournament Director". cricketage.in. 10 August 2020. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
17. Samantha Dodanwela appointed LPL Tournament Director Thepapare.com Retrieved 4 May 2022
18. Fernando, Andrew Fidel (17 July 2022). "LPL 2022 postponed due to economic situation in Sri Lanka". ESPNcricinfo. ESPN. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
19. "LPL 'unloves' Kandy franchise again". The Sunday Times. 23 June 2024. Retrieved 11 December 2024.
20. LPL Player Draft 2022 | Players List
21. LPL Season 4 to have IPL-style auction for the five squads
22. Tagore, Vijay (2 August 2020). "Indian-owned Dubai firm bags Lanka Premier League rights". Bangalore Mirror. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
23. "LPL team valuation chart released : Jaffna tops with $3.98m". newswire.lk. Wire Digital Pvt Ltd. 23 June 2021. Retrieved 6 December 2022.
24. "Annual Report 2021" (PDF). srilankacricket.lk. Sri Lanka Cricket. 2023. p. 129. Retrieved 16 August 2023.
25. "Annual Report 2022" (PDF). Sri Lanka Cricket. 2023. p. 167. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
26. Fernando, Champika (1 September 2024). "SLC endure mixed fortunes in finances during 2023". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 3 October 2024.
27. "Concerns over LPL 4 franchise ownerships". The Sunday Times. Wijeya Newspapers. 27 August 2023. Retrieved 29 August 2023.
28. "Jaffna claimed the madain title of LPL". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
29. "Jaffna Stallions win inaugural Lanka Premier League with thumping final win over Galle Gladiators". SkySports. 16 December 2020. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
30. "LPL 2020 Finals : Jaffna Stallions wins Lanka Premier League title, beat Galle Gladiators in LPL Finals". InsideSport. 17 December 2020. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
31. "Avishka, Kohler-Cadmore fire Jaffna Kings to second successive LPL title". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 24 December 2021.
32. "Avishka, Samarawickrama lead Jaffna Kings to third straight LPL title". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 24 December 2022.
33. "Lanka Premier League Cricket Team Records & Stats | ESPNcricinfo.com". Cricinfo. Retrieved 17 July 2024.
34. "Lanka Premier League Records". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 4 October 2024.

External links

• Official Website of LPL

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