Former Indian all-rounder turned commentator Irfan Pathan has been drafted among the pool of 70 players who are open to play in the Lanka Premier League.
The Lanka Premier League (LPL) is expected to start from the third week of August and end before the mid-September. Apparently, Irfan Pathan had requested BCCI to let him play in the upcoming Lanka Premier League and the Indian board has permitted for that.
The board has only allowed only the inactive or retired players who wish to participate in other T20 leagues. That allowed Pathan to finally get a chance to get on the field. He last played his official cricket match back in February last year and then announced retirement from the International cricket in January this year.
Pathan will have the chance to be roped in by any of the five franchises, however, the final dates and the complete schedule is yet to be finalised by the Sri Lanka Cricket. The five teams that will be competing are from Colombo, Kandy, Galle, Dambulla and Jaffna.
Also, the SLC is also waiting for a clearance from the Sri Lanka Government for the further proceedings of the league.
The actual story behind Pathan’s inclusion in the foreign players’ draft takes us back to his sweet-bitter banter with the former Sri Lanka all-rounder Faveez Maharoof. Actually Maharoof had taken a jibe at the Indian all-rounder on a video of him working out. Later, Maharoof went on to offer Pathan to get drafted for the LPL.
It only depends on the Sri Lankan government and their permissions they will enable the SLC to get things going as planned and also include small crowds during the matches and slowly bring back cricket in the country.
