LPL 2020: Colombo Kings appointed Herschelle Gibbs As Head Coach

Former South African opener Herschelle Gibbs has been roped in by LPL franchise Colombo Kings as Head Coach for the upcoming season which is all set to start from November 26th 2020.The news was confirmed by one of the officials associated with the Franchise on Thursday. This Franchise will be led by Angelo Mathews who will work integrally with Gibbs and Rangana Herath where the latter will be serving as Assistant coach for the franchise.

Meet our new #KingsBrainsTrust @hershybru @HerathRSL #TheKingdom #ColomboKings #LPLT20 pic.twitter.com/0xVeDH5yPi

— Colombo Kings (@ColomboKings) November 19, 2020

The Popularity of Lankan Premier League has been impacted to a great extent as some of the great T20 players like Lasith Malinga, Chris Gayle and Liam Plunkett have pulled out from the competition due to their personal reasons. Gayle and Plunkett were supposed to play for Kandy Tuskers along with the likes of Irfan Pathan, Munaf Patel, local icon Kusal Perera, Sri Lankan T20 specialists Kusal Mendis and Nuwan Pradeep.

All five franchisee teams named after Colombo, Kandy, Galle, Dambulla and Jaffna will play 23 matches in total. The opening match of the tournament will be played between Colombo Kings and Kandy Tuskers at the Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium in Hambantota on November 26. The competition will be played in doubleheaders format where the top 4 teams will compete against each other in a semifinal round on December 13th and 14th 2020. The winner of these two matches will compete against each other in a nail-biting final which will be played on December 16th 2020.

It is certainly evident that Sri Lankan Cricket team is struggling in last few years especially in absence of stalwarts like Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara who retired from the game. They need players like them to take Sri Lankan cricket to next level and looking at the current lot it seems not an easy task.