The trouble-hit Sri Lanka Premier League (SLPL) will either be postponed or cancelled as none of the franchise owners have paid up their fees to Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) and Somerset Entertainment Ventures (SEV) by yesterday’s deadline despite claims by its CEO Ajit Jayasekara, that the tournament will go ahead as scheduled next month.
“So far no one has paid up the fees,” a Sri Lanka Cricket official confirmed. “We are left with no option but to postpone or cancel the tournament,” he added.
The SLPL, a domestic T20 league was doomed to fail from the inception after India refused to send their players while its clashing with the Caribbean Premier League this year was a major concern for the franchise owners.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) barred 12 Indian cricketers appearing in the SLPL last year while alleging that the organizer, Singapore-based Somerset Entertainment, had links to Lalit Modi, the sacked former boss of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
As exclusively reported on June 3, 2013 by Ceylon Today, none of the franchise owners have shown any interest to take part in the domestic T20 league as they had failed to meet their financial expectations during the first edition in 2012.
The seven SLPL franchises were not sold outright but were leased for a seven-year period by SLC. The franchises this year asked for an extension of the lease period in order to recover their costs and the sports ministry said the requested extension was for a whopping eight additional years, which would take the total lease period to 15 years.
The seven Sri Lanka Premier League teams were auctioned at an average price of $US4.3 million. The reserve price had been set at $US3 million each.
Despite the uncertainty surrounding the tournament, CEO Jayasekara has said that the second edition will go ahead as scheduled from August 10 to September 7 and the player draft would be held on Saturday.
