The Sri Lankan Cricket Board is looking forward for support from the Board of Control for Cricket in India. It was announced yesterday (16 February) that the Sri Lanka cricket will be launching its own Lankan Premier League. The Sri Lankan board wants to get Indian players playing in the league.

It is well known that the BCCI doesn’t permit its players to play for any other country’s T20 league and the Indian players are only seen playing in their own Indian Premier League. Sri Lankan Cricket has good relation with the Indian board and they will look to convince BCCI to allow their players to play in the league.

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BCCI has always refused to provide No Objection Certificates by which their players cannot play for any other franchise outside India. “These are still early stages and we need to put up the processes of conducting the tournament. One area that we will certainly look at is the possibility of attracting Indian players for the event. We have a very good relationship with the BCCI and they have always supported us and we are hopeful of getting their support to make the event a success,” an SLC official told Cricbuzz.

Sri Lankan Cricket is hopeful that if they will not be able to get the top Indian players, they can get some uncapped Indian players which will really help them. The official added, “Even if we aren’t able to attract top Indian players, the participation of uncapped Indians will help us to market the event better. The demand for players from West Indies for franchise based tournaments is also quite high and that is the reason why we are hosting our event after the Caribbean Premier League.”

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It looks bleak that the BCCI will allow its top brass players to participate in the Lankan Premier League but it would be interesting to note whether they will give a green signal to the uncapped players.

In May 2011, SLC had launched the Sri Lankan Premier League (SLPL) with the first season of the tournament played in 2012, while the league was cancelled in 2013 and then 2014 due to financial issues.