COLOMBO: The second edition of the Lanka Premier League (LPL) kicked off here Sunday with an opening ceremony in front of fans at the R Premadasa Stadium, that also had Sri Lanka Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and the island nation’s Sports Minister Namal Rajapaksa in attendance.
Paralympic Gold medalist Dinesh Priyantha also graced the event and declared the T20 franchise tournament open.
For Dubai-based IPG, organisers of LPL 2021, it has been no easy ride to deliver the event, what with the dates being changed twice (initially from 29th July to 19th November and then finally to 5th December), as too the late stage withdrawal of Colombo team owners 27th Investments from the tournament, before Sunday’s opening ceremony and inaugural game that saw Galle Gladiators defeat Jaffna Kings.
Anil Mohan – founder and CEO of IPG, said: “An explosive start is very important for any competition and what a start it was on Sunday. I would like to thank Sri Lanka Cricket, all the sponsors and brodcasters and most importantly the fans of Sri Lanka cricket, who showed their passion and love for their favourite stars at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. We look forward to a fantastic tournament.”
The Lanka Premier League, which has five teams competing for the trophy – Dambulla Giants, Kandy Warriors and Colombo Stars being the other three – is set to take bigger strides this year with a host of sponsors, including Wolf777 News, Sky247 and FairPlay.
The flagship T20 tournament of Sri Lanka is also being telecast to cricket fans all over the world. Indian fans can catch the action on SONY SIX & SONY TEN 2 channels and the OTT platform SonyLIV, while A-Sports will broadcast the matches in Pakistan. Cricket fans in the the Caribbean, Australia, UK, USA & Canada, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka will witness the games on SportsMax, beIN SPORTS, FreeSports, Willow TV, T Sports and Supreme TV respectively. Additionally, Daraz, through their e-commerce platform www.daraz.lk, is streaming the matches live for fans shopping on the platform.
A total of 24 matches will be played in LPL 2021. As is the case with the “master template” Indian Premier League, the final round games will see the top two teams in the points table playing the Qualifier 1, whilst the 3rd and 4th placed teams on the table will play in the ‘Eliminator’.
The winner of ‘Qualifier 1’ will directly go into the Final, whilst the loser of the ‘Qualifier 1’ will play against the winner of the ‘Eliminator’ in the ‘Qualifier 2’, and the winner of that game will go into the Final.
The Final will be played on 23 December at the Mahinda Rajapaksa International Stadium, Hambantota.
