Second edition of LPL to begin on December 5

The upcoming edition of the Lanka Premier League (LPL) 2021 will commence on the December 5 at the R. Premadasa International Cricket Stadium (RPICS), Colombo, it was announced on Wednesday.

The inaugural game of the season will be played between Galle and Jaffna.

The first round of the tournament, which will consist of 20 games will be played at the RPICS before it moves into Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium (MRICS), Hambantota to proceed with the final round games.

The finals of the League will be played on the December 23 at the MRICS, Hambantota, whilst this year’s tournament has December 24, as a ‘Reserve Day’ dedicated for the finals.

The LPL 2021, which is Sri Lanka’s topmost domestic tournament, with an international flavor, will consist of 24 games and will see the participation of topmost domestic and international cricketers.

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 playing in the ‘eliminator.’

The winner of ‘qualifier 1’ will directly go into the finals, 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 finals.

Earlier, the second edition of the Lanka Premier League (LPL), which was supposed to kick-off on July 29, was postponed due to unavailability of foreign players.

“The Lanka Premier League 2021, which was expected to commence on the 29th July 2021, has been rescheduled,” the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) had said in a statement.

Terming the unavailability of foreign players as one of the reason, it had further said: “The Governing Council of the Lanka Premier League is of the view that rescheduling the tournament will enable more players from leading cricket-playing nations to take part in the league.”

“The Council made this decision after assessing that at least one similar premier league and several international tours will be played among the cricketing nations during August 2021, during the period, which the LPL 2nd edition was expected to be played,” the statement had added.

Supreme TV, Sri Lanka’s TV channel, had recently acquired the exclusive rights to broadcast the LPL in the island nation from the IPG Group, the official franchise and broadcast holder.

The multi-year agreement, positioned as one of the biggest broadcast deals so far in the Island Nation will help LPL penetrate deep into every nook and corner of the country and Supreme TV is committed to play an integral part in the television and digital transmission of the LPL starting from the second season.

Sony will continue to be the official broadcaster of the league in India.

The inaugural edition of the LPL, which was played in a bio-secure bubble at the Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium in Hambantota from November 26 till December 16, 2020, had reached a cumulative audience of 557 million people through TV, digital-social space, and traditional media outlets.

News Desk

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