Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) on Tuesday announced the postponement of the inaugural season of the Lankan Premier League to mid-November.
The decision had to be taken after considering Sri Lanka’s government’s orders that anyone flying to the country shall undergo a mandated a 14-day-quarantine before the tournament begins. Since only 17 days were left for the tournament to kick-off, the arrangements would have taken more time which was not feasible for the SLC.
This compelled the Sri Lanka Cricket to push the tournament to the mid-November i.e., after the Indian Premier League (IPL)
The SLC was initially hoping of getting a shorter time of serving the quarantine period by the country’s Health Ministry. However, they didn’t get a nod of for shortening the mandated 14-day quarantine period
The tournament was originally scheduled to take place between August 28-September 20 with five teams competing against each other.
“The said decision was taken by SLC in consideration of the health guidelines stipulated by the Ministry of Health subsequent to the meeting held with the Health Ministry Authorities,” the press release by the Sri Lanka Cricket read.
SLC vice-president Ravin Wickramaratne welcomed the decision of the health ministry by stating that the Board is now planning on choosing a window between November 20 to December 12.
“We’re not the experts, so we had to go with what the health ministry is telling us,” Ravin Wickramaratne told ESPNcricinfo.
“There’s a window from November 20th to December 12th, so that is what we are planning.” he added.
