SLC goes for quality instead of quantity to enhance club cricket

Tournament Committee Chairman Samantha Dodanwela addressing the Sri Lanka Cricket membership

• Major Clubs Tier A to be reduced to 12 clubs
• Ban on overseas players
• No cricket in monsoon months Sep-Nov

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) through its Tournament Committee Chairman Samantha Dodanwela has taken some bold decisions to enhance the quality of club cricket especially in Tier A where the number of clubs that were to be reduced from the original 26 to 15, will be further pruned down to 12 over a period of three seasons.

The relegation of clubs from the Major Clubs tournament began from 2022 when four teams were relegated to Tier B. A further four teams were demoted in 2023. At present the Major Clubs is competed for by 18 clubs.   

“I want to change the present club structure because initially in 2020-21 with the amalgamation of Tiers A and B there were 26 clubs. Then I started relegating eight clubs in the first two years and this year with the relegation of three clubs it will be reduced to 15,” said Dodanwela.

“However, I have gone one step forward and got approval from the membership to bring it down to 12 clubs by relegating four teams this year (instead of three) and, a further two teams next year to bring the number down to 12. The main idea of relegation is to ensure the quality of club cricket is enhanced. When you reduce the numbers, the cream of the players will be fighting for a place within 12 teams instead of 15 or 26 teams which is the way forward.”

“I was very pleased with the clubs for agreeing to this proposal as this was done for the betterment of Sri Lanka cricket. It was passed at the EGM and approved by the Executive Committee. The proposal was circulated and if the membership had any objections, it should have been brought up at the EGM, but they unanimously agreed,” Dodanwela said.

The relegated clubs Dodanwela said will compete in Tier B. The matches will be of three days duration, but it will not have any first-class status.

“If any cricketer wants to play overseas, he should have first-class status. What happens then is, he is compelled to come and compete at the highest level in Tier A. Once we come down to 12 teams it will be one team relegation from Tier A and one team promotion from Tier B, each season. That’s how it works. Moving forward my intention is to bring the number of clubs down to 10, but at this moment, bringing it down to 12 will be a great achievement.”

Further, the Tournament Committee has taken a firm decision to stop clubs from signing overseas players.

“Some clubs are signing up mediocre players from overseas and playing. We have enough and more players and they are being deprived of the opportunity,” said Dodanwela. “A couple of clubs opposed the move, but we were firm on the decision, and we said no overseas players in future. Foreign players have been allowed to play in club cricket for the past 6-7 years. When you bring the numbers down, the competition to get into the side will be more, so why do you want to bring overseas players? We are here to develop cricket, not to mess about with it. If you want to develop cricket you have to take stern action whether people like it or not.”

The Tournament Committee has also decided not to play any matches during the period September to mid-November which is supposed to be the rainy season.

“We are basically giving a break for about two and a half months from September to mid-November where there won’t be any cricket because of the monsoon. Most of the time the Major Club tournament was getting hampered due to rain, and we have been playing in the rainy season, giving preference to the National Super League (NSL),” said Dodanwela. “The view of the membership is that the clubs are the main system where we produce and feed players into the national team. So, after speaking to the national selectors and committees, they were agreeable to put NSL back. The club season will start in mid-November and will go on till February after that only the NSL will commence.”

The Tournament Committee has also reverted back to its early decision of having the domestic season during the calendar year to overlap two years. Thus, the present season will be 2024-25. It started with the SLC Major T20 tournament in May and will end in April 2024 after the completion of the SLC Major 50-over followed by the Lanka Premier League, the SLC Major League and the NSL 4-day and 50-over.

“We have changed the season from calendar year to the financial year so it will revert back to falling into overlapping two years.”