Sports

No home advantage for clubs in future

Major Club 3-day tournament teams will not have home advantage

Matches to be played at neutral venues
Preparation of pitches and ground to be supervised by SLC
Five-year plan to improve quality of domestic cricket

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Tournament Committee Chairman Nalin Aponso

Clubs playing in the SLC Major 3-day League, which is the blue ribbon of club cricket in the country, will no longer have the home advantage of preparing wickets to suit their own ends after Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) took a decision to play all matches at neutral venues.

The SLC Major Club 3-day League which commences today with a card of six matches will see this new scheme of things come into practice for the first time.

“This is the first time in the history of domestic cricket we are playing club matches at neutral venues. It is being done to improve the quality of wickets and cricket. This plan will go on for the next five years,” said Tournament Committee Chairman Nalin Aponso.

“There is a gap between the NSL (National Super League) and Major Club tournaments. We want to bridge that gap by providing good wickets at neutral venues. The wickets will be prepared under the supervision of Sri Lanka Cricket.”

“The main idea is to play at neutral venues plus international venues so that the players will get the necessary exposure when they represent the country. This is a new step taken by SLC to improve the quality of domestic cricket, otherwise all the clubs prepare wickets to suit their strengths and some matches don’t go the distance. This will bridge the gap between NSL and Major Club cricket and our players will have a quality tournament.”

Aponso said that SLC has identified grounds like the P Sara Oval, CCC, NCC, Galle, Dambulla and Hambantota as venues for the matches but because of the T20 World Cup certain grounds may not be available as they have to be given as World Cup practice venues for international teams. As a result a few other grounds will also host the Major Club League matches.

A special venue inspection team led by SLC National Cricket Operations Head Chintaka Edirimanne will monitor all the venues. This special team will look into the infrastructure, wicket preparations etc.

“We have identified the grounds a long way back. The special team has already taken over the grounds and are monitoring the preparation of pitches from early November,” said Aponso.

From this season the tournament committee will stick to 14 teams that will play in the Major Club 3-day League.

“The original idea was to bring it down to 12 but we thought of re-introducing the Super Eight which was last played in 2010 and was very successful. The clubs and everybody were happy with the structure including the national selectors who have more opportunities to select players and the players who will have more matches to play,” said Aponso.

Unlike the previous three years only one club will be demoted to Tier B and one club promoted from Tier B.

The 14 teams will play in two groups of 7 each and the first four teams of each group will qualify to play in the Super Eight. The teams will carry forward the points from their respective groups into the Super Eight which will be played on a league basis. The team that tops the league will be declared champions.

The six teams that fail to make it to the Super Eight from the two groups will play in the Plate tournament on a league basis. The team that finishes at the bottom of the Plate will be demoted to Tier B and the team that wins the Tier B title will be promoted to the Major Clubs 3-day League for the following year.

“We want to finish the Plate tournament before the T20 World Cup during which no domestic matches will be played. The Super Eight we might not be able to finish. Because of the rain it was pushed back, otherwise we could have finished it. Earlier, our plan was to finish before the World Cup but due this postponement it is unlikely that it will be. We may be able to play a few matches and the remaining matches after the World Cup due to certain grounds becoming unavailable,” said Aponso.

Matches commencing today: