{"id":110539,"date":"2021-01-09T16:52:15","date_gmt":"2021-01-09T23:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=110539"},"modified":"2021-01-09T16:52:31","modified_gmt":"2021-01-09T23:52:31","slug":"lpl-can-be-a-money-spinner-and-springboard-for-promoting-national-integration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/01\/09\/lpl-can-be-a-money-spinner-and-springboard-for-promoting-national-integration\/","title":{"rendered":"LPL can be a money-spinner and springboard for promoting national integration"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rohan Abeygunawardena<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Hats off to\npresent office bearers of SLC led by President\nShammi Silva and the Tournament Director Ravin Wickramaratne for successfully\nstaging the first everLanka Premier League (LPL) cricket\ntournament. They should be specifically lauded because this tournament was held\nagainst all odds under trying circumstances. Apart from the threat from\nCOVID19 epidemic there were usual Sri Lankan style opposition too. However\nyoung Minister of Sports Namal Rajapaksa supported the SLC to the hilt.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five teams\nnamed after various Sri Lankan cities played a total of 23 matches from 26 November to 16 December 2020. It was\nJaffna Stallions who became the champs on December 16 finals against Galle\nGladiators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly,\nJaffna Stallions (JS) is owned by a consortium consisting of Sri Lankans and\nIndians from all over the world including Australia, Canada, France, United\nKingdom, and the USA. A cricket enthusiast and avid cyclist, Anandan Arnold is\nthe Chief Executive Officer of JS. Arnold from Manipe, Jaffna and educated at\nSt John\u2019s College Jaffna left Sri Lanka when his studies were disrupted by the\nunrest preceding the outbreak of war in 1983. He qualified as a Chartered\nAccountant and became a Senior Partner at BBK Partnership Chartered Accountants\nin the United Kingdom. Since 2005, he has done yeoman service to the people in\nthe North like rehabilitating hospitals and setting up BBK offices to provide\nemployment mainly for underemployed educated youths from the North. He came\nforward to help SLC to stage the LPL. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arnold is\nsupported by Team Manager Ganeshan Vaheesan, who is also an Accountant by\nprofession lived in UK and Saranga Wijeyarathna Director of Communications and\nMedia of JS. Another important aspect is multi billionaire Rahul Sood<\/a>,\ncreator of Microsoft Ventures M12<\/a>, coming forward as a co-owner. Quoted\nfrom Andrew Fidel Fernando<\/a>\u2019s article in ESPN cricinfo dated 12\nDecember 2020 “Once\nI heard the vision that Arnold had, I was on board straightaway,” Sood\nsaid. “Using sport for reconciliation in a post-war setting, and giving\nyoung kids who literally grew up in a war to play at a high level – who\nwouldn’t want to get involved?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the\nsuccess story of JS there will be renewed enthusiasm for cricket in Jaffna and\nother parts of Northern Province. SLC therefore can expect highly talented young\ncricketers from the North in the future to augment \u2018\u2019the Lions.\u2019\u2019 When so many\nof them start playing with the cricketers from the south in the same club or\nschool the feeling of\noneness, brotherhood and social unity under communities and society will\nautomatically take place promoting national integration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s hope Arnold and his team will continue to promote\ncricket in the North. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Galle\nGladiators is owned by Pakistan Businessman Nadeem Omar, who owns\nthe Quetta Gladiators<\/a> in Pakistan Super League<\/a>. Omar has\nalways had a passion for cricket and sports of all kinds, whether indoor or\noutdoor. As he stated after the finals, he is a lover of Sri Lanka and consider\nit as the most beautiful island in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Colombo\nKings are owned by Dubai based Indian businessman, Dambulla Viikings are\nowned by Bollywood actor Sachiin J. Joshi<\/a>. \nBollywood actor Sohail Khan<\/a> and Abbas Muni co-owned the Kandy\nTuskers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 According\nto the Tournament Director Wickramaratne\nSeason 1 LPL had an unbelievable\u201d viewership being broadcast to over 26\ncountries and a website published that 130 million viewers watched the final\nworldwide. Encouraged by the success SLC has already made arrangements with ICC\nto keep vacant July-August as the window for the LPL (Daily FT 22 December 2020).\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Question is,\ncan the LPL go forward without audience or spectators at the grounds to\ngenerate ticket revenue due to epidemic. A market research conducted by the\nICC, cricket has over a billion fans globally with the Indian sub-continent\nalone constituting more than 90 per cent of them. This is the opportunity Sri\nLanka Cricket should capitalize. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cricket\nlovers are desperate to see competitions start again even if they are so-called\nghost matches\u201d played in empty stadiums without a crowd. The fans need entertainment\nin the comfort of their home in times of great stress, when\ntheir towns and villages are lockdown due to epidemic. Many people worldwide\nare now getting used to the concept of \u2018entertainment at a push of a button\u2019\nwith their TVs and digital media.  There\nare smartphone apps specifically designed for watching sports events remotely\ncalled \u2018Virtual stadiums.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some may\nargue whether LPL can sustain when there is no on ground audience or spectators\nand no ticket revenue. But it has been proved at IPL that ticket revenue does\nnot affect much the central revenue. Major part of the revenue is earned\nthrough sponsorship, advertisement and broadcasting rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the\nsuccess of LPL season 1, there will be a higher demand for the acquisition of sponsorship\nand broadcasting rights together with advertisement slots and improve the non-ticket\nrevenue streams. However SLC must workout strategies to increase viewership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A research\nstudy conducted by Lancaster University Management School in 2007 found that in\nsoccer television viewers prefer close contests to more predictable contests by\nthe fans inside the stadium. This is true in cricket league matches too as can\nbe observed in the IPL (mother of all cricket league tournaments) matches over\nthe years. Up to IPL 2020 as many as five matches concluded with super overs\nincluding one played over two super overs whereas in the first edition of LPL\nthere were four super over matches. They are thrilling encounters enjoyed by\ncricket fan all over the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indian Premier League (IPL) was inaugurated in 2008. Within a\nfew years it became the most lucrative annual sporting event of BCCI. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly LPL also can be turned into a money spinner for SLC\nif few more teams are introduced and attract more international \u00cdcon\u2019\ncricketers especially from India. It also can be a springboard for promoting\nnational integration and as a means of fostering social justice, equality,\npeace and stability for the Sri Lankans affected by 30 year war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rohan Abeygunawardena<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rohan Abeygunawardena Hats off to present office bearers of SLC led by President Shammi Silva and the Tournament Director Ravin Wickramaratne for successfully staging the first everLanka Premier League (LPL) cricket tournament. They should be specifically lauded because this tournament was held against all odds under trying circumstances. Apart from the threat from COVID19 epidemic there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110539\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}