The draft for Sri Lanka’s upcoming Premier League tournament has been postponed due to a coronavirus outbreak in the country.
Leading internationals such as Chris Gayle, Darren Sammy, Darren Bravo, Shahid Afridi, and Shakib Al Hasan were available for Friday’s draft for the T-20 competition. After 1,000 workers tested positive in the past 72 hours at a factory near Colombo this week, the government has locked down affected regions and banned public gatherings.
A statement released by SLC said, “The Player Draft of the Lanka Premier League (LPL), which was scheduled on October 9, 2020, will not go ahead as planned, owing to the current health situation. The Player Draft is rescheduled to October 19, 2020, while SLC will closely monitor the health situation leading up to the new draft date.”
LPL organizers are yet to issue the updated player list for the LPL 2020 Players Draft. As per previous releases, Bangladesh players were unavailable for the tournament since their domestic calendar is set to begin on October 11.
Reports also suggest that Caribbean players have decided to opt-out of the first season of the tournament as the players are not ready to serve the 14 days quarantine period.
LPL is in trouble right from its inception with little clarity on dates, schedule, format, organizers. After multiple postponements, only time will tell if SLC’s ambitious project can take off this year or not.