Sri Lankan cricket team to play in Goa Premier League

Panaji - Three outstation cricket teams, including a Sri Lankan outfit, will be the highlight of the Goa Professional League (GPL) which will kick off here Feb 23, the organiser said.

Speaking to reporters, Goa Cricket Association chief Vinod Fadke said playing with international players would give exposure to Goan cricketers, very few of whom get opportunities to play with top-grade players.

“We have three outstation teams, one each from Haryana, Mumbai and Sri Lanka. We are getting outstation teams to raise our standard of cricket. The Sri Lanka team will have as many as four former international players,” Fadke said, adding that the move would raise the standard of local cricketers.

“Apart from these three outstation teams, we will also have five other Goan teams, which are evenly matched because we have distributed the top players across them. The matches will be keenly contested,” Fadke said, adding that the matches would be played in Twenty-20 format on the lines of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

He also said that the inauguration ceremony Feb 23 would also draw a page from the IPL, with a high-voltage entertainment ceremony to mark the beginning of the 2013 edition of the GPL.