Sri Lanka Cricket(SLC) on Thursday, July 5 postponed the idea of Lankan Premier League, which was due to start in the month of August-September this year. The postponement of SLC's longtime ambitioned self-owned T20 league is basically a continuation of SLC's various issues that has stagnated the health of the game in the country for a while. In fact, the talks of event not happening were doing the rounds since the elections of SLC was held by a court ruling in May. 

Tournament Director of LPL Russel Arnold confirmed the development with a tweet, which read, "Hi Folks !!! The Lankan Premier League which was to be played in Aug/Sep has been postponed. #Uncontrollables  @OfficialSLC"

The league was a brainchild of former SLC chief Thilanga Sumathihpala and the event had gained momentum after Sumathipala had received the backing of Board of Control for Cricket in India. The BCCI, while stating the technical difficulties in releasing players for the foreign leagues, had verbally committed to send non-contracted players like Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh and Yusuf Pathan. 

For the first couple of years, SLC was going to own the franchises and only sell the branding rights. That would have forced SLC to pump in money for the event and the board was content in doing so with the hope that the event would be profitable in years to come. SLC had allocated a slot for a ten-year period for the event.

A source close to the matter, told Cricbuzz, "We would have loved to make profits, no doubt about that. But it was not going to happen in the first few years for practical reasons. But once we had built up a product, we could market it. More than profit making, through Lankan Premier League, what we intended was creating a competitive environment and raise the standards of domestic cricket," 

(Inputs from Cricbuzz)