Fifth edition of Lanka Premier League kicks off at Pallekele today

• Power Blast Overs aimed at producing power hitters

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

One of the glaring facets of Sri Lanka’s calamitous performance in T20 World Cup 2024 was the lack of power hitters in their batting which was one reason why they failed to put up challenging totals for their bowlers who had the capacity to win matches with the wide variety they had in their armour.

The fifth edition of the Lanka Premier League (LPL) which commences at the Pallekele Cricket Stadium today, gives Sri Lanka another opportunity to try and unearth power hitters who could make an impact with the national side before the next T20 World Cup comes around in two years where Sri Lanka are co-hosts with India. Following the opening ceremony at 3 p.m., last year’s finalists Kandy and Dambulla will play the curtain-raiser match of the 2024 LPL at 7:30 p.m.

The introduction of a second power play – a new innovation titled Power Blast Overs from this edition of LPL is expected to make Sri Lanka achieve it towards this end.  

This new innovation by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) will provide each team with a two-over power play during the 16th and 17th overs of their innings where only four fielders will be allowed outside the 30-yard circle, thus creating a more aggressive and thrilling phase of the game.

This new power play will be in addition to the traditional power play that occurs during the first six overs of an innings where only two fielders are allowed outside the circle.

“Everyone was talking about the impact player (used in the IPL) being introduced in the LPL also, but I was of the view that we should not do what somebody else had done but introduce something new,” said LPL Tournament Director Samantha Dodanwela.

“The impact player was introduced to raise the score by allowing a fresh batsman to come and get quick runs. I thought we should do something different, so instead, I decided to introduce this new concept which was accepted by the SLC Executive Committee. We are giving batsmen the liberty to go after the bowlers in these two overs. It was introduced with the intention of producing power hitters for Sri Lanka. It has received a lot of encouraging response from the foreign and social media who think it is something very innovative.”

Whether the new concept will be successful only time will tell, but at least some awareness has been raised to plug the holes in the national team’s T20 batting. 

“We need players who can clear the boundary any time of the 20 overs because T20 cricket doesn’t give batsmen time to play themselves in. We have to find players who can do that. The idea is to produce more and more power hitters through the LPL and build up a strong national T20 side,” said Dodanwela.

Sri Lanka’s paucity for power hitters was glaringly exposed during their T20 World Cup game against Bangladesh at Dallas, where they scored only 24 runs with one boundary in the last six overs after being 100-3 in 14 overs.

The LPL has also provided a platform for unearthing new talent.

“Unless you play a tournament of this nature you will never find hidden talent. There are players who have come through the LPL and blossomed and gone onto play for the national team,” said Dodanwela. “Players like Shevon Daniel, Nuwanidu Fernando, Lahiru Samarakoon and Janith Liyanage. Sadeera Samarawickrama made a comeback to the national team after his performances in the LPL and Maheesh Theekshana who never played any first-class cricket came into the national team through the LPL,” Dodanwela added.

Kandy Falcons led by national T20I captain Wanindu Hasaranga who won the title last year as B-Love Kandy are without a franchise owner after Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) decided to terminate last year’s owners for faulting on payments and not falling in line with tournament regulations. Kandy Falcons will be run this year by the IPG Group, official rights holder of LPL.

Kandy has retained eight of the players who won the title for them last year, while runner-up Dambulla have introduced several new players retaining only three and they have a new captain in Afghanistan all-rounder Mohammad Nabi, who becomes the first overseas player to captain a team in the LPL after Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi who led Galle Gladiators in the inaugural edition for a short time, having to cut short his stay due to a personal emergency. Niroshan Dickwella, the bad boy of Sri Lanka cricket has been entrusted with the responsibility of leading Galle Marvels. Dickwella is fresh from captaining his club side NCC to retain the SLC Major Clubs T20 tournament and will look forward to adding the LPL title to his list of achievements.

Thisara Perera having led Jaffna to the LPL title on three of the four occasions he has captained, will lead Colombo Strikers. The captaincy of Jaffna has passed onto Charith Asalanka, the Sri Lanka white ball vice-captain. 

Apart from Kandy, two other teams have also undergone changes to their names. Galle Titans are going under the name of Galle Marvels and Dambulla Aura are going as Dambulla Sixers. Jaffna Kings and Colombo Strikers are the only teams to retain their names.

A feature of this year’s tournament is the presence of 28 international players who participated in the recently concluded ICC T20 World Cup in the USA and the West Indies, with Afghanistan having the largest overseas representation with six.

The first six matches of the 24-match tournament will take place at the Pallekele Cricket Stadium and then move to the Rangiri Dambulla Cricket Stadium for the next eight matches. Colombo’s R Premadasa Stadium will host the last 10 matches including the final.