Afridi and Vettori to captain Sri Lanka’s “North-East” teams

Six national captains, including four from Sri Lanka, Sanath Jayasuriya, Mahela Jayawardane, Kumar Sangakkara and T. M. Dilshan, will lead seven Provincial teams in the forthcoming Sri Lanka T20-Premier League (SL-T20-PL) Tournament.

The seventh captain will be former Sri Lanka vice-captain, Chaminda Vaas. The Sri Lanka T20 Premier League will feature almost 35 international cricketing stars and will be the first of its kind in Sri Lanka.
The event organisrs, Somerert Entertainment Ventures (SEV) have found a window for the tournament which is sandwiched between Sri Lanka's tour of England and Australia's tour of Sri Lanka.

The event will kick off on July 15th and will go on for 18 days. Twenty four hotly contested matches, including the two semi-finals and the final, will be played at the R. Premadasa Stadium. There will be two matches on certain days.


Dashing opener T. M. Dilshan will lead Basnahira while Kumar Sangakkara (Kandurata), Mahela Jayawardane (Wayamba), Sanath Jayasuriya (Ruhuna) and Chaminda Vaas (Uva) will be the other captains.

Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi (Nagenahira) and New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori (Uthura) have been chosen to lead two provinces that were isolated from the game for ages due to the civil war.

Five overseas players could be registered to a provincial team but only four will be allowed to play in a match. Sri Lankan national selectors and cricket authorities have agreed to blood as many youngsters and almost 70 Sri Lankan cricketers will be registered in the seven team tournament.

Almost all Pakistani national cricketers will be invited to play in the SLPL. Factually, Sri Lanka was Pakistan's adopted home in the 2011 Cricket World Cup concluded last month as they played all their first round matches in Sri Lanka.

In addition to that, Chris Gayle and the Bravo cousins (Dwayne and Darren) from West Indies, Pathan brothers (Irfan and Yousuf) from India, Herschelle Gibbs, David Warner and Shaun Tait will be seen in action on Sri Lankan soil.

The availability of retired great Muttiah Muralitharan is not yet confirmed but some unconfirmed sources revealed that he is eager to play in the series.

Milind Rege, the tournament manager of the 2011 cricket World Cup will be in charge of all cricketing matters of the tournament. Rege is a former Ranji Trophy captain for Mumbai and recently retired from TATA corporation as a managing committee member.

Source : Daily Mirror

'Hard decision to omit Jayasuriya, Vaas' - De Silva

 Aravinda de Silva, Sri Lanka's chairman of selectors, has said the exclusion of veterans Sanath Jayasuriya and Chaminda Vaas from the final squad was taken after looking at all options to select the best possible 15 for the World Cup.

"We were not going to waver from that and looking at individuals as such because we wanted the best team to ultimately go out there and represent the 20 million people in Sri Lanka," De Silva said yesterday. "That was the only reason why they were left out. Unfortunately not only them but it was a very hard decision and emotional thing for the four selectors also to leave out two great cricketers like that as they would have been looking forward to saying goodbye after a World Cup. But that's how life is. To be fair by everyone, those two cricketers have done so much for Sri Lanka cricket and we can never forget that."

De Silva said that it was entirely up to the two players to decide whether they wanted to continue playing. "I guess they have got a great future ahead to contribute towards Sri Lanka cricket and I hope they will do so. Through their experiences I am sure they will come back and help Sri Lanka cricket in the future. But if they want to continue playing they are most welcome to do so. I am not the one to decide when they are going to finish their careers."

"At the same time, Suraj Randiv has not done anything wrong to be out of the squad but it was unfortunate because he didn't fit into the combinations which we needed in the 15. Those are the three guys whom I really feel for at this moment."

Vaas however has a thin chance of playing in the World Cup if there happens to be an injury to Nuwan Kulasekera. "We consider Vaas as a new ball bowler but with Lasith Malinga and Kulasekera there he can only come as first change. When he does that he doesn't have the same effect as when he bowls with the new ball. Vaas had direct competition with Kulasekera. If Kulasekera gets injured we will have to consider someone like Vaas because he is the next best new-ball bowler in Sri Lanka. If we are playing Vaas we must have the maximum advantage of using him as a new ball bowler. The way Kulasekera has performed in the past one to one-and-a-half years, it is difficult to keep him out."

Dilhara Fernando was selected as a back-up bowler for Lasith Malinga, De Silva said. "What we have to understand is why we pick certain players and what we expect of them. Dilhara is a guy whom everyone might feel goes for runs on most occasions and sometimes bowls no-balls when he loses rhythm. But ultimately what we expect of him is to be a strike bowler and to replace someone like Lasith. In case of an emergency we need someone in the squad if Lasith doesn't play. Dilhara has got that extra bit of pace to hurry a batsman and with a bit of life and bounce on a wicket we would opt for him in the final XI."

On left-arm spinner Rangana Herath's inclusion, De Silva said, "We got two offspinners (Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis) and with Randiv we would have had three. The combination we were looking at was three spinners and we wanted some variation in the spin attack. We thought the best left-arm spinner in the country is Rangana so we had to opt for him. He's played only nine ODIs but we felt he is the best left-armer we got so we had to go with a bowler whom we can depend on."

Mahela Jayawardene, who has fared well as an opener whenever he has been given the opportunity, would be the third opener in the side after the regular pair of Tillakaratne Dilshan and Upul Tharanga.

"We decided to go with Mahela in case we required a third opener because we are playing only eight games and we don't want to bring in an extra player and upset the combination of the squad," said De Silva. "If it comes to a real push we will have to look at someone like Mahela at that stage or maybe someone else who is batting way down the order as an experiment."

De Silva said that they picked the squad very early (the ICC deadline is January 19) in order to give the selected players the opportunity of playing in the inter-provincial limited-overs tournament which starts on January 11. "That's a tournament which I want the players to be relaxed and enjoy playing some cricket with free minds."

De Silva also stated that he hopes to give maximum exposure to the selected World Cup squad of 15 during the upcoming three-match one-day series against West Indies. The matches are due to be played on January 31, February 4 and 6 at venues yet to be finalized. 

Source - Cricinfo

Vaas named T20 Player of the Year in English County season

Vaas has been named as 2010's 'T20 Player of the Year' for his performances at the Friends Provident T20 (FPT20) tournament in England this summer.

The FPT20 tournament features all of England's top tier county sides, and Chaminda Vaas playing for the Northants Steelbacks finished a memorable tournament showing off his all-round prowess.

In a surprising move, the Steelbacks promoted Vaas up the order to open batting where the Sri Lankan veteran notched up 412 runs which included four half centuries. With the ball he claimed 23 wickets at just 6.33 runs-per-over, taking three-wicket hauls on three occasions..

The Steelbacks announced recently that they have re-signed Vaas for next year's county championships. At the end of the competition in August this year, after some 151 matches spanning two and a half months, featuring big names in the cricket world like Kieron Pollard, Adam Gilchrist, and David Hussey, Vaas became the first overseas player to win the FP T20's 'Most Valuable Player' award.

In the Indian Premier League, 2010, Vaas finished as one of the Deccan Chargers' most successful bowlers. Inexplicably, however, the Chargers' Australian skipper, Gilchrist, chose to play Vaas for only six games, opting instead for his fellow countrymen.

Northants have already resigned Vaas for next year's county championship which includes the LV= County Championships, the Clydesdale Bank 40, and the FP T20.