New provincial tournament introduced to raise standards

Sri Lanka Cricket has revealed plans to introduce a new super-competitive provincial tournament to raise the standard of the domestic cricket and help young cricketers adjust better to the demands of international cricket.

The new four-team provincial tournament follows a workshop with players, ex-players, umpires, match referees and administrators earlier in the year, where concerns had been raised over the large difference in standard between domestic and international cricket.

The existing 18-team first-class club competition, which will start in October after the completion of a limited overs tournament, has been streamlined to provide time for the new tournament. This year there will be no super league phase in the Premier League.

"We identified a concern over the big gap that exits in Sri Lanka between the domestic and international cricket," said Bandulla Dissanayake, the tournament secretary of Sri Lanka Cricket.

"The lack of exposure to high quality, competitive cricket is making it hard for cricketers when they start playing international cricket," he added. "We thought we should have another tier where the best 60 players played against each other with the best possible facilities."

The 60 players will be selected by the national selection committee and divided into four teams - Western, Northern, Central and Southern Province. A head coach, selector, physiotherapist and fitness trainer will be allocated to each side.

Teams will play each other twice on a home and away basis. The tournament is scheduled to start in January, shortly after England's tour of Sri Lanka.