Ravin Wickramaratne, the powerful Vice President of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has officially been appointed Lanka Premier League (LPL) Tournament Director, Cricket Age reliably learns.
The LPL is said to be held from 28 August to 30 September and involves a total of 23 league matches to be played across four international venues in Sri Lanka.
Though, officially appointed only now, Wickramaratne was overseeing all aspects of the LPL from the beginning. Along with SLC ExCO member Bandula Dissanayake, Ravin has been handling LPL marketing, promotion, negotiation with the foreign players agents, finalizing the broadcaster etc.
As vice president, Ravin was overseeing both International and domestic cricket since last one and half year, before the arrival of stalwart Jayantha Dharmadasa as a successor of outgoing vice president K Mathivanan.
As per the SLC claims, a total of 93 international cricketers, including England’s World Cup-winning pacer Liam Plunkett and New Zealand seamer Tim Southee, have been listed for the inaugural edition of the LPL.
A Sri Lankan icon player would get a salary cap of USD 60,000, while a top cricketer would be in the range of USD 50,000 to 40,000. Others would fit into the USD 40,000 to 30,000 and USD 20,000 to 10,000 ranges, depending on their stature. International players are expected to be in the USD 10,000 to 60,000 range.
The T20 league will see 23 matches being played on the four international venues of R Premadasa International Cricket Stadium, Rangiri Dambulu International Cricket Stadium, Pallekele International Cricket Stadium and Suriyawewa Mahinda Rajapakse International Cricket Stadium.
The five teams have been named after the cities of Colombo, Kandy, Galle, Dambulla and Jaffna. The tournament ends on September 20.
