Chevrons stars miss out on Lankan Premier League

ZIMBABWE Cricket stars missed out on playing in Sri Lanka’s 2023 Lankan Premier League (LPL) after the auction was conducted on Wednesday in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

A total of six Chevrons stars went under the hammer in the auction but, however, went unsold. The six are Sikandar Raza, Sean Williams, Craig Ervine, Bradley Evans, Chris Mpofu, Richard Ngarava and Ryan Burl.

Playing in Sri Lanka’s franchise set-up would have given the Zimbabwean stars an opportunity to rub shoulders with some of the best cricketers in the world. Players like Raza, Williams and Burl were some of the favourites to make it to the teams given their experience of playing in international franchise leagues.

From the six, five (excluding Mpofu) are part of the Zimbabwean team that is taking part in the upcoming 2023 Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifiers which start on Sunday in Harare.

For Raza, this would have been his second consecutive appearance in the LPL, having taken part in last year’s edition.

Raza was part of the Dambulla Aura side that finished at the bottom of the standings with two wins from eight matches.

The high-flying all rounder finished with 76 runs from seven matches and a high score of 45 and also took five wickets with the best figures of 2/5.

The LPL is made up of five franchise teams, who all, except Dambulla Aura, have six overseas players.

The six overseas players who managed to make the cut are Mathew Wade (Australia), Lungi Ngidi (South Africa), Hayden Kerr (Australia), Noor Ahmad (Afghanistan), Asif Ali (Pakistan), Shahnawaz Dahani (Pakistan) and Alex Ross (Australia).

The other four teams competing in the league are Galle Titans, Jaffna Kings, B-Love Kandy and Colombo Strikers. Other international stars taking part in the tournament include Babar Azam, David Miller, Shakib Al Hasan, Tabraiz Shamsi, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Fakhar Zaman among others.

Each team was allowed to have a squad of 20-24 players, inclusive of a mandatory six overseas players and 14-19 domestic players.

The 2023 LPL will be the fourth edition of the franchise league and is scheduled to take place from 31 July to 22 August 2023. Games will be played in three different venues and the Jaffna Kings are the defending champions.

In a statement from Sri Lanka Cricket, the tournament was placed in July and August inorder to have a chance of attracting top international talents and the dates also suit well with Sri Lanka’s international cricket calendar. — @brandon_malvin