LPL takes off today

• Bollywood stars and celebrities to grace the tournament

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

After much consternation and deliberation Sri Lanka’s inaugural T20 tournament with international players – the Lanka Premier League (LPL) – is set to take off at the Mahinda Rajapaksa International Stadium at 3.30 pm today sans all the fanfare due to the current pandemic that requires strict health guidelines be adhered to.

The tournament will be declared open by Sports and Youth Minister Namal Rajapaksa who has played a big hand in ensuring the LPL became a reality.

The start of the tournament was postponed four times from its initial date of 28 August due to the pandemic, and that it is happening is largely due to the Sports Minister.

“Our only concern was if the government decided to lockdown the entire country we may not have gone ahead with it but Shammi [Silva, the SLC president] and I, we were both adamant. Special mention should be given to Namal Rajapaksa he was right behind it. He wanted to have sports in the country booming now. He was the strength behind all of us. Shammi couldn’t have handled the decision makers without Namal’s support,” said LPL Tournament Director Ravin Wickramaratne.

“Without Shammi I don’t think we could have done it. He actually balanced the top layer and he basically dealt with the decision makers. It allowed for me to go on with other aspects of the game and the tournament, and he didn’t interfere. Having said that, we never thought that we could have done this without the support of the Health Ministry,” Wickramaratne continued. 

“We have been having a lot of discussions. They also compromised and we had to agree to them with regard to the quarantine period. That was the major threat nothing more than that.”

According to Wickramaratne this is the first time a virtual opening ceremony is happening in the world as far as cricket is concerned.

“The Sports Minister will speak a few words and declare it open and the SLC president will also speak. We will be launching our mobile app and after that there will be a cultural show but nothing physical, it is virtual. Then we will go to the studio for discussion, then to the toss, and then the match will commence.

“When the first ball is bowled it would bring some sort of satisfaction to all of us that we have achieved something for Sri Lanka cricket. Being given a task, I should be happy more than anyone else because usually it is a fast bowler who starts the game. I was a fast bowler.”

IPG Founder CEO and Managing Director Anil Mohan said the LPL was the most challenging one he has undertaken in the five years since his new company was formed.

“It is the most challenging one I have faced because of COVID-19. Nothing was happening at times and so many issues were there. This is very difficult because you are not there with anyone. You cannot even sit with the Sri Lankan Board in one office and decide on things. I hired an office from October, but when COVID came I couldn’t operate the office, it was so difficult,” said Mohan.

However he assured that everything was under control for today’s opening match between Colombo Kings and Kandy Tuskers at 8 p.m. Five teams are competing in 23 matches over 15 days to decide on the champions on 16 December.

“Despite the challenges we managed it somehow. The Sport Minister is supporting us very much he has been there for us whenever anything is required.”

Mohan said the quality of television broadcasting of LPL would be as good as the IPL, and revealed that during the tournament several Bollywood stars and celebrities would be present.

“Sachiin Joshi the big Bollywood star owns Dambulla. He is getting all the celebrities, and coming for the matches in his own chartered flight. He is very big, his profile is more than 15,000 crores (Indian) turnover. He will come three or four times on his charter and go back. He will bring lots of Bollywood stars like Akash Chopra – lots of them. We will know once we get the passport copy,” added Mohan.