Ravi Bopara pulls out of Lanka Premier League

Aryasekhar Chakraborty

In what appears to be another setback to the inaugural edition of the Lanka Premier League, English all-rounder Ravi Bopara has made himself unavailable for the tournament joining a sizeable group of players. While the Sri Lanka Cricket board have been optimistic about the tournament, there have been several issues surrounding the same. However, with the growing list of players making themselves unavailable it will be interesting to see the fate of the tournament.

Bopara was part of the Jaffna Stallions squad. Earlier in the day the official Twitter handle of LPL revealed that Bopara has pulled out of the tournament. 

"Official announcement English Cricketer @ravibopara (Jaffna Stallions) has pulled out from Lanka Premier League 2020," the official Twitter handle of LPL read.

Bopara is not the first player to pull out of the tournament. Big players like Lasith Malinga and Chris Gayle have also opted out of the inaugural fixture. Meanwhile, Liam Plunkett also pulled out of the tournament yesterday. While Malinga cited lack of match practice and preparation time behind his decision, it is learnt that Gayle withdrew his name from the tournament as commercial understanding with the organizers couldn’t be made.

In all 23 matches will be played in the tournament between five franchise teams, Colombo, Kandy, Dambulla, Galle and Jaffna. The opener will be played on November 26 between Colombo and Kandy. Doubleheaders will be played every day till the semis and the finals. While the semis will be played on 13th and 14th December, the final will be played on 16th December.

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