Sri Lanka's top players snub first-class cricket

Sri Lanka's leading cricketers snubbed the Premier League last weekend when they preferred to participate in the Mercantile Cricket Sixes, which was won by a powerful Hatton National Bank side, rather than play in the crucial second stage of the Premier League Trophy.

Approximately 25-players refused to play for their clubs, upsetting some teammates who were forced to play in depleted teams. The Sinhalese Sports Club and the Tamil Union were particularly badly hit, losing over half of their team. Both sides were defeated.

The players have a particular strong allegiance to their Mercantile teams, who double up as their employers during the week and provide crucial monetary support in the amateur club game, and their reluctance to forfeit the popular weekend spectacle for the hastily rearranged Premier League matches was therefore understandable.

The incident does, however, raise the question of just how important the Premier League is perceived to be by those who play it. If Sri Lanka's best cricketers feel they can miss a potentially crucial three-day game for a jolly six-a-side tournament, then all is surely not well with the cradle of Sri Lanka's cricket.

Hatton National Bank emerged as winners in the tournament, largely thanks to the swashbuckling batting of Avishka Gunawardene, who plays his club cricket for SSC. He scored 44 runs in the final against John Keels and was awarded the Best Batsmen award, the Player of the Final award, and an award for hitting the most sixes in the tournament.