The Lanka Premier League (abbreviated as LPL; , ) is a professional franchise

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

league established in 2020 in

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

. Matches are played using the

Twenty20 cricket Twenty20 (abbreviated T20) is a shortened format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the county cricket, inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two t ...

format by five teams named after Sri Lankan cities. The league was intended to commence in 2018, but repeatedly postponed by

Sri Lanka Cricket Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is the governing body for cricket in Sri Lanka. It was first registered with the Sri Lankan Ministry of Sports (Sri Lanka), Ministry of Sports as the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka on 30 June 1975 as a national ...

(SLC). The inaugural edition took place in 2020 amidst the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. As of 2024, there have been five seasons of the tournament. The current title holder team is

Jaffna Kings Jaffna Kings (), formerly known as Jaffna Stallions, is a franchise cricket team which plays in the Lanka Premier League (LPL). Kings are the current title holder of the tournament. The team was coached by former Sri Lankan captain Thilina K ...

, who won their fourth title in the 2024 Lanka Premier League by defeating

Galle Marvels Galle Marvels, formerly known as Galle Titans and Galle Gladiators, is a Sri Lankan franchise professional Twenty20 cricket team that competes in the Lanka Premier League, Sri Lanka and represents the city of Galle, Southern Province. Ahead of ...

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

, 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 Ravin Wickramaratne (born 9 April 1962) is a Sri Lankan former cricketer. He played in one List A and nineteen first-class matches from 1989 to 1993. After his playing career, he became the Vice-President of Sri Lanka Cricket, and the tournament ...

, 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 Shri (; , ) is a Sanskrit term denoting resplendence, wealth and prosperity, primarily used as an honorific. The word is widely used in South and Southeast Asian languages such as Assamese, Meitei ( Manipuri), Marathi, Malay (including Ind ...

and the resultant

2022 Sri Lankan protests The 2022 Sri Lankan protests, commonly known as Aragalaya (), were a series of mass protests that began in March 2022 against the government of Sri Lanka. The government was heavily criticized for mismanaging the Economy of Sri Lanka, Sri Lankan ...

, was postponed despite the player draft having already been held.

Teams

Current teams

Franchise history

Organisation

Player acquisition, squad composition and salaries

In the league's first three seasons, teams chose players using a draft system, having previously had the opportunity to sign a limited number of players directly. For the 2023 season, an auction was introduced. Each franchise was allowed to directly sign two local players and two overseas players ahead of the auction. Each franchise operated with a

salary cap In professional sports, a salary cap (or wage cap) is an agreement or rule that places a limit on the amount of money that a team can spend on players' salaries. It exists as a per-player limit or a total limit for the team's roster, or both. Seve ...

of US$1 million, US500,000 of which could be spent on direct signings with the remaining spent in the auction.

Governing Council

, which is responsible for all elements of the tournament, established a governing council to administer the league. Members of the governing council include Sri Lanka Cricket CEO Ashley de Silva. The marketing and organisation rights to the LPL were awarded to an Indian-owned Dubai-based company, Innovative Production Group (IPG), in 2020.

Finances

The inaugural edition of the league reached a cumulative audience of 557 million through TV, digital-social media and traditional media. According to the 2021 Annual Report of

, The league generated revenue of LKR334 million in 2020, LKR463 million in 2021, LKR839 million in 2022. Source: ''Newswire.lk'', June 2021

Criticism

Sports Minister Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in a p ...

Roshan Ranasinghe Anuruddha Ranasinghe Arachchige Roshan (born 25 October 1975) is a Sri Lankan politician, former Cabinet Minister, and member of the Parliament of Sri Lanka. He belongs to the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna. He served as the Minister of Sports and ...

raised the issue of the need to regulate Lanka Premier League franchise owners and sponsors during the parliamentary

adjournment debate In the Westminster system, an adjournment debate is a debate on the motion, "That this House do now adjourn." In practice, this is a way of enabling the House to have a debate on a subject without considering a substantive motion. Types of deba ...

on Sri Lanka Cricket's expenditure for the

2022 ICC Men's T20 World Cup The 2022 ICC Men's T20 World Cup was the eighth edition of the Men's T20 World Cup, formerly known as the ICC World Twenty20. It was played in Australia from 16 October to 13 November 2022. In the final, England cricket team, England beat Pakist ...

. Some of the 2023 Lanka Premier League sponsors included gambling companies and unauthorized foreign exchange trading platforms.

Minister of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe Wijeyadasa Rajapakse, MP, PC (born 16 March 1959) is a Sri Lankan lawyer and politician. He was the Minister of Justice from 2022 to 2024 and from 2015 to 2017. He was the prime minister's nominee for the Constitutional Council of Sri Lanka. ...

claimed that B-Love Network, the owners of the Kandy franchise, is banned in Sri Lanka.

Tournament seasons and results

Out of the five franchises that have played in the league, the Jaffna franchise has won three titles, while the Kandy franchise has won only one title.

Jaffna Stallions Jaffna Kings (), formerly known as Jaffna Stallions, is a franchise cricket team which plays in the Lanka Premier League (LPL). Kings are the current title holder of the tournament. The team was coached by former Sri Lankan captain Thilina Ka ...

won the inaugural season, defeating

Galle Gladiators Galle Marvels, formerly known as Galle Titans and Galle Gladiators, is a Sri Lankan franchise professional Twenty20 cricket team that competes in the Lanka Premier League, Sri Lanka and represents the city of Galle, Southern Province. Ahead of ...

by 53 runs in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

. The following season,

beat Galle by 23 runs and in 2022 defeated

Colombo Stars Colombo Strikers, formerly known as Colombo Stars and Colombo Kings, is a franchise Twenty20 cricket team based in Colombo, Sri Lanka, that competes in the Lanka Premier League. Thisara Perera is the captain of this franchise while Carl Crowe ...

by 2 wickets to win their third consecutive title.

Finals

Team playing records

Source: CricInfo Notes: * Tie & W and Tie & L indicates the matches tied and then won by or lost by ''

super over Super Over, also known as a one-over eliminator or a one over per side eliminator, is a Tiebreaker, tie-breaking method used in Limited overs cricket, limited-overs cricket matches. If a match ends in a "Result (cricket)#Tie, tie", it proceeds t ...

'' respectively.

Team's performance

Records

* Source: records extracted from

ESPNcricinfo ESPNcricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a ...

Broadcasters

References

Notes

External links

Official Website
of LPL {{DEFAULTSORT:Lanka Premier League * Cricket leagues in Sri Lanka Professional cricket leagues Twenty20 cricket leagues