By Shehan Daniel

A total of 353 have been included in the player draft for the third season of the Lanka Premier League that will be conducted virtually today (7).

Of that total a majority are overseas players, with former West Indian T20I captain Carlos Braithwaite, along with compatriots Evin Lewis, Fabian Allen, Sherfane Rutherford, Johnson Charles, Sheldon Cottrell and Ravi Rampaul among the 180 foreign players who have submitted their names to participate in this year’s edition.

Pakistan’s Mohammed Rizwan, South Africans Dwaine Pretorius, Reeza Hendricks, Lizaad Williams, Bangladesh’s Shakib-al-Hasan, Ireland’s Kevin O’Brien, and retired New Zealander Ross Taylor have entered the player draft.  

“Our aim is to make this the second best T20 franchise tournament after the IPL, and we are confident that we can build towards that with this year’s edition,” Samantha Dodanwela, Tournament Director of the LPL told the Daily Mirror.

Along with a more focused player draft, where those who have been included have gone through a strict vetting process and therefore the number of players available has been drastically reduced compared to previous years, franchises will have to sign two players under the age of 23 to their squads, in the Sri Lanka ‘Gold Round’.

The draft as a whole will consist of 20 rounds, covering several player categories, such as ‘International Ruby,’ ‘International Sapphire,’ ‘International Diamond ‘A,’ and ‘B,’ and ‘International Platinum’, with the salary brackets to remain the same as last year.

Four of the five franchise will continue under the same ownership as last season, while Kandy will have its third ownership group in as many seasons.  

Franchises have been allowed to retain upto six players, consisting six local players and two foreign players, while also signing two overseas and two Sri Lanka players as direct signings.

This led to several players switching teams, most notably last year’s player of the tournament Wanindu Hasaranga joining the yet to be renamed Kandy team, where he join all-rounder Chamika Karunaratne who featured for the Damball Giants team last season.

Leaving the Kandy squad and switching to the Angelo Mathews-led Colombo Stars franchise is Charith Asalanka, who has been signed as a pre-draft player, while the Softlogic owned franchise has retained Dinesh Chandimal, Seekuge Prasanna and Jeffrey Vandersay.

The Dambulla Giants franchise will be led once again by Dasun Shanaka, with Ramesh Mendis, Nuwan Pradeep and Tharindu Ratnayake retained, while Bhanuka Rajapaksa has been signed from the Galle Gladiators franchise.

The Gladiators have retained Danushka Gunathilaka, Nuwan Thushara, Kusal Mendis and Pulina Tharanga, while Dushmantha Chameera has been snapped up from the Stars.

Defending champions Jaffna Kings will be led by Thisara Perera and have retained mystery spinner  Maheesh Theekshana and left-arm spinner Praveen Jayawickrama, while all-rounder Dhananjaya de Silva has been signed from the Stars.

“Around 70% of the matches will be played in Colombo, at the R. Premadasa, while the rest of the matches will be played in Hambantota,” Dodanwela added.