National cricketers may end up playing only domestic cricket for the year

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

It looks the way things are shaping up amidst COVID-19 that Sri Lanka’s cricketers may end up playing only domestic cricket for 2020.

The national cricketers last played an international series in early March this year against the West Indies and have since seen four subsequent series postponed due to the Corona virus namely England (2 Tests), South Africa (3 ODIs, 3 T20Is), India (3 ODIs, 3 T20Is) and Bangladesh (3 Tests), all at home.

According to Sri Lanka’s FTP (Future Tours Program) Zimbabwe is due to tour Sri Lanka in October for 3 ODIs and 2 T20Is and Bangladesh in December for 3ODIs and, Sri Lanka to tour South Africa in December-January for 2 Tests. Whether these series will go ahead is a matter of conjecture.  

The chances of international cricket resuming in this country have been further dashed with the scheduled re-opening of the international airport being pushed back from 1 August.

“We may have to push back the Lanka Premier League (LPL) and it looks very unlikely that even the Asia Cup will take place in September which means we have a little time to play around,” said Sri Lanka Cricket secretary Mohan de Silva.

“Domestic cricket is scheduled to resume in mid-July and the clubs have already commenced practices under the guidelines given by the Ministry of Sport and the Health Department,” he said.

“At the moment the only cricket our national players can play is the domestic tournament (Premier League Super Eight) and hopefully the LPL with overseas players depending on the time if restrictions are withdrawn on travel.

“A lot of overseas players are showing interest and by pushing back the LPL to September-October things may change. We are keeping our fingers crossed,” De Silva said.

In the meantime Sri Lanka Cricket is working on two modules on the franchises according to De Silva.

“One is the franchise holding and the other is handing the entire package to a marketing company. We have called for EOI’s (expressions of interest) and waiting for finalisation of it. It is something similar to what we did for the Nidahas trophy,” said De Silva.

“The Nidahas trophy we made almost a billion rupees within just seven days of cricket but that was of course because the Indian team participated.”

De Silva said that SLC will retain the media rights from which they can accrue an income.

“A couple of good companies (from Hong Kong and India) have shown interest but the only thing is I don’t know whether they can get their desired markets because of the present environment,” he said.