Mahela speaks on LPL player draft issue & getting everything right

 

Former Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardena has revealed his reasons for expressing disappointment on the overall Players’ Draft of the Lanka Premier League (LPL) 2021.

Speaking to reporters, the Sri Lanka cricket legend expressed his views on the latest controversy over the LPL Players’ Draft which was conducted recently.

“I was a bit disappointed when I saw the overall draft. As someone who was involved with player drafts in different franchises, I know how you pick your players, the skeleton, the combinations. So I was a bit baffled with some of those picks. I mean, that’s why I made a comment,” he said.

Mahela Jayawardena emphasized the need for senior and experienced players to be part of a country’s domestic league.

“And the other thing is that you’d need your senior players, your experienced players in your domestic leagues as long as they’re fit and playing good cricket because that’s the only way the next generation will learn as well. So you need to create that competitive environment,” he explained.

Jayawardena pointed out that the LPL sets the stage for especially white-ball cricket going forward in Sri Lanka.

“The first year had issues, but we had a very good tournament and we saw a lot of the younger guys who are now in the current set up who actually came through that. So the LPL is going to be a huge platform for, especially for white-ball cricket going forward in Sri Lanka,” he said.

The former Sri Lanka skipper added that therefore it was important for the LPL to be conducted properly in order to produce good cricketers for Sri Lanka.

“So it’s important that we get everything right. We have the right governance, right mechanism in place so that the ultimate goal is to produce good cricketers for Sri Lanka. That’s where I will always stand and hopefully, those changes will be made going forward,” Mahela Jayawardena concluded