Domestic cricket to resume from Friday

• SLC gets green light from Sports Minister

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

All domestic tournaments that were suspended will resume on Friday 22 September.

The tournaments came to a grinding halt when Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) was informed by the Department of Sports Development Director General that they had not received the consent of the Sports Minister before making structural changes to the inter-club three-day tournament ahead of the 2023 season.

Although the letter didn’t state to stop the tournaments, the SLC on the advice of their lawyers decided to suspend the tournaments until a clarification was received from the Sports Minister.

SLC wrote to the Sports Minister for clarification and last week they had received a letter from the Ministry asking them to continue with the domestic tournaments.

Thus the Major Club 3-day League will resume from Friday with a card of 10 matches.

The three weekends of matches that could not be played during the period of suspension from 1-3 September, 8-10 September and 15-17 September have been rescheduled for 6-8 October, 13-15 October and 20-22 October with the 4-day final scheduled for 26-29 October.

Suspending the tournament was a blessing in disguise for SLC because of the bad weather experienced during the period which would have affected a majority of the matches.

The suspension affected several players who banked on their contracts and match fees they received to make a living out of cricket. Clubs who had signed up overseas players to represent them in the tournament were also affected.  

The bad weather still persists and it is hoped that it will clear by Friday to allow a full game of cricket to be played over the three days.