Muralitharan to captain Central Province

Muttiah Muralitharan will captain Central Province in Sri Lanka's new four-day provincial tournament in January. All the international players are expected to participate in the four-team tournament, which was introduced to help bridge the quality gap that exists between club and international cricket.

Hashan Tillakaratne will captain Western Province, Marvan Atapattu will lead Southern Province, and Mahela Jayawardene will skipper Northern Province. All the teams have also been allocated a coach, manager and selector.

The tournament is due to start on January 3. Each team will play each other twice, meaning 12 group games in all, with the final scheduled for February 11-14. The matches will be played at Kandy, Galle and Dambulla, as well as the Premadasa Stadium and the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo.