Wikipedia - Lanka Premier League
The Lanka Premier League (abbreviated as LPL; Sinhala: ලංකා ප්රිමියර් ලීග්, Tamil: லங்கா பிரீமியர் லீக்) is a professional franchise cricket league established in 2020 in Sri Lanka. Matches are played using the Twenty20 cricket format by five teams named after Sri Lankan cities. The league was intended to commence in 2018, but repeatedly postponed by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC). The inaugural edition took place in 2020 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
As of 2023, there have been four seasons of the tournament. The current title holder team is B-Love Kandy, who won the 2023 Lanka Premier League by defeating Dambulla Aura in the final.
History
The first season of the league was initially planned to be held from 18 August to 10 September 2018, but this was postponed multiple times due to administrative issues within Sri Lanka Cricket. In June 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, SLC announced the tournament would start on 28 August 2020, with 70 overseas players showing an interest in playing in the league. In August 2020, Ravin Wickramaratne, the Vice President of SLC was officially appointed as the director of the tournament. After being rescheduled due to pandemic related restrictions, the first season began on 26 November 2020.
In May 2022, Samantha Dodanwala was officially appointed as the LPL tournament director. The third edition was scheduled to take place in August 2022, but due to the ongoing Sri Lankan economic crisis and the resultant 2022 Sri Lankan protests, was postponed despite the player draft having already been held.
Ligaen blir spelt i løpet av eitt månad, med kvar av laga som spelar åtte kampar i grunnserien. Dei fire beste laga går til sluttspelet, som består av to semifinalar og ein finale.
LPL har tiltrekt seg fleire av dei største cricketstjernene i verda, inkludert Chris Gayle, David Warner, Andre Russell og Shahid Afridi. Ligaen har også bidratt til å fremje lokale talent, med mange srilankiske spelarar som har gjort seg bemerka.
LPL er ein stor suksess på Sri Lanka og har raskt blitt ein av dei mest populære cricketligaene i verda. Ligaen har bidratt til å fremme cricket på øya og har også gitt ei plattform for srilankiske spelarar til å konkurrere på det høgaste nivået.