Sri Lanka may have been successful in controlling the coronavirus during the outbreak but the inaugural Lanka Premier League (LPL) has officially been postponed.
The LPL, Sri Lanka’s new incarnation of a domestic T20 league, had been scheduled to commence on August 28 and running through to September 20.
Only last week five team names were publicly proposed as planning for the LPL ramped up, but Sri Lanka Cricket has now postponed the event until November.
Sri Lanka has only recorded 2,871 confirmed COVID-19 cases with 11 deaths and with new daily cases regularly in single digits this month.
The stumbling block for Sri Lanka Cricket has been the mandatory 14-day quarantine period required for anyone arriving in the island nation, with health advice from the government not wavering.
It’s understood more than 70 international players had flagged interest in participating in the LPL but that would be practically impossible if the event went ahead this month, particularly given a lot of details are yet to be finalised.
“We’re not the experts, so we had to go with what the health ministry is telling us,” SLC vice-president Ravin Wickramaratne told ESPNcricinfo.
“There’s a window from November 20 to December 12, so that is what we are planning.”
The Indian Premier League has already re-scheduled its 2020 event from April-May to October-November, which is a window vacated by the postponed ICC T20 World Cup.
Australia’s Big Bash League is committed to its December-January window as per normal, having announced their fixtures last month, although it is anticipated the league won’t run on a home-and-away basis with clubs likely to enter into centralised hubs.
England’s new The Hundred was set to launch in mid-2020 but has been postponed for 12 months.
