Premier Limited Over tournament to be shown on TV

ESPNCricinfo: The three knockout matches of the forthcoming Premier Limited Over domestic tournament will be broadcast on national television, the SLC has announced. The beginning of the tournament has also been postponed by a week, to November 27, due to prevailing rain in Colombo. The semi-finals of this tournament will be played on 23 and 24 December, and the final on 30 December.

Sri Lanka’s top players will be unavailable for the tournament, with the Test squad in New Zealand, and seven further centrally-contracted players set to be tied up with the Bangladesh Premier League until mid-December.

There have also been concerns that the contracted format of this tournament could prove problematic for many domestic players. The Premier Limited Over tournament has been squeezed into a timeframe of less than five weeks, in order to make room for the three new city-based domestic tournaments that the SLC has introduced this season.

This means more weekday matches have been scheduled than in previous seasons. Some domestic cricketers have complained weekday matches clash with their day jobs. However, the board has taken the view that since match fees have been increased by almost 300% this year, players are adequately compensated for the time off from work.

The tournament features 14 clubs, which will be split into two groups. The teams play a round-robin phase before the top two sides from each group progress to the semi-finals.