Tournament format(s)Double round-robin and playoffs
HostSri Lanka
ChampionsB-Love Kandy (1st title)
Runners-upDambulla Aura
Participants5
Matches24
Player of the seriesWanindu Hasaranga (B-Love Kandy)
Most runsWanindu Hasaranga (B-Love Kandy) (279)
Most wicketsWanindu Hasaranga (B-Love Kandy) (19)
Official websiteLanka Premier League
The 2023 Lanka Premier League, also known as Skyfair.news LPL T20, for sponsorship reasons, was the fourth edition of the Lanka Premier League (LPL), a Twenty20 franchise cricket tournament in Sri Lanka. It began on 30 July and the final was held on 20 August 2023. The tournament was played by five teams at three international venues. The league was organized by the Sri Lanka Cricket. Jaffna Kings were the defending champions. This was the first Lanka Premier League season to feature an auction as the previous editions used to have the draft to choose players.
2023 Lanka Premier League is located in Sri Lanka
Competition format
Each team can include a maximum of six international players in their squad. The five teams will play each other twice in the round-robin stage. Among them, the top four teams will advance to the playoffs.
Squads
The players' auction was held on 14 June 2023. Prior to the auction, some big-name players signed contracts with the five teams. These players include Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Shakib Al Hasan and David Miller.
Player auction
The auction was held on 14 June 2023, where the five franchises were allowed to spend a maximum of US$500,000 each. The auction was held at Shangri-La Colombo and the likes of Wasim Akram and Angelo Mathews were available during the player auction. Popular Indian cricket commentator Charu Sharma was invited as the chief auctioneer for the auction.
Each team was allowed to have a squad of 20-24 players, inclusive of a mandatory six overseas players and 14-19 domestic players. Any money not spent from the pre-signing kitty cannot be carried over to the auction. The teams also had a right-to-match option for their players, and the money for that had to come from within the auction kitty.
Bidding took place between two teams at any given time, with a third team allowed to join the bidding only once one of the first two teams had withdrawn from the process. An "accelerated" auction process occurred after the first 70 names were presented for bidding. This process saw franchises nominate 15-20 players, including unsold players, who will go under the hammer.
Players were categorised into two groups, capped and uncapped. Each capped player will be able to register themselves under base prices ranging from $10,000 to $50,000 in $10,000 increments. Uncapped players will be classed with a base price of $20,000 - those having played a minimum of 50 first-class matches; $10,000 - a minimum of 25 first-class matches, or a minimum of 18 matches in the LPL or any other equivalent T20 franchise league; and $5000 - those who do not meet any of the criteria mentioned above.
Dilshan Madushanka became the auction's most expensive player to be picked when Jaffna Kings bought him for a record price of $92,000. New Zealand's Chad Bowes became the auction's most expensive overseas player to be picked at $58,000 and it raised eyebrows given Bowes is yet to establish and prove himself at international level.
It was reported that some prominent overseas players including the likes of Rassie van der Dussen were not picked by any of the franchise owners due to the said players being signed up by rival franchise T20 leagues such as Global T20 Canada which are also set to clash with LPL during the same time period.
Venues
R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo and Pallekele International Cricket Stadium in Kandy were selected as the venues.
Colombo
Kandy
R. Premadasa Stadium
Pallekele International Cricket Stadium
Capacity: 35,000
Capacity: 35,000
ColomboKandy
Standings
The top four teams qualified for the playoffs , Advance to Qualifier 1 , Advance to Eliminator
Pos
Team
Pld
W
L
NR
Pts
NRR
1
Dambulla Aura (R)
8
6
2
0
12
0.793
2
Galle Titans (3rd)
8
4
4
0
8
0.353
3
B-Love Kandy (C)
8
4
4
0
8
0.185
4
Jaffna Kings (4th)
8
3
5
0
6
−0.179
5
Colombo Strikers
8
3
5
0
6
−1.215
Fixtures
Colombo Strikers won the toss and elected to field.
Dambulla Aura won the toss and elected to field. , Super Over: Dambulla Aura 9/1, Galle Titans 11/0
Colombo Strikers won the toss and elected to bat.
Jaffna Kings won the toss and elected to bat.
Galle Titans won the toss and elected to bat.
Dambulla Aura won the toss and elected to bat.
Galle Titans won the toss and elected to bat.
Colombo Strikers won the toss and elected to field.
B-Love Kandy won the toss and elected to field.
Colombo Strikers won the toss and elected to field.
Jaffna Kings won the toss and elected to field.
Galle Titans won the toss and elected to field.
Colombo Strikers won the toss and elected to bat.
Dambulla Aura won the toss and elected to field.
B-Love Kandy won the toss and elected to field.
Dambulla Aura won the toss and elected to bat.
Jaffna Kings won the toss and elected to bat.
Colombo Strikers won the toss and elected to bat.
B-Love Kandy won the toss and elected to field.
Galle Titans won the toss and elected to field.
Jaffna Kings won by 21 runs R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo Umpires: Gazi Sohel (Ban) and Raveendra Wimalasiri (SL) Player of the match: Vijayakanth Viyaskanth (Jaffna Kings)
Dhananjaya de Silva 43 (31) Dasun Shanaka 3/27 (4 overs)
Match tied(Galle Titans won the Super Over) R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo Umpires: Chamara de Soysa (SL) and Lyndon Hannibal (SL) Player of the match: Dasun Shanaka (Galle Titans)
Colombo Strikers won by 27 runs R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo Umpires: Chandrika Amarasinghe (SL) and Gazi Sohel (Ban) Player of the match: Babar Azam (Colombo Strikers)
Match 4 1 August 2023 15:30 (D/N) Scorecard
Jaffna Kings129/7 (20 overs)
v
Dambulla Aura132/2 (16.2 overs)
Charith Asalanka 56 (52) Binura Fernando 2/27 (4 overs)
Avishka Fernando 52 (32) Vijayakanth Viyaskanth 1/24 (4 overs)
Dambulla Aura won by 8 wickets R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo Umpires: Ravindra Kottahachchi (SL) and Raveendra Wimalasiri (SL) Player of the match: Avishka Fernando (Dambulla Aura)
Match 5 1 August 2023 19:30 (D/N) Scorecard
Galle Titans180/5 (20 overs)
v
B-Love Kandy97 (17.1 overs)
Tim Seifert 74 (39) Mohammad Hasnain 1/26 (4 overs)
Ashen Bandara 27 (19) Kasun Rajitha 2/8 (2 overs)
Galle Titans won by 83 runs R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo Umpires: Chamara de Soysa (SL) and Gazi Sohel (Ban) Player of the match: Tim Seifert (Galle Titans)
Match 6 4 August 2023 15:00 (D/N) Scorecard
Dambulla Aura156/6 (20 overs)
v
B-Love Kandy160/3 (18.3 overs)
Dhananjaya de Silva 61 (39) Mujeeb Ur Rahman 2/17 (4 overs)
Dinesh Chandimal 48 (29) Dhananjaya de Silva 1/16 (3 overs)
B-Love Kandy won by 7 wickets Pallekele International Cricket Stadium, Pallekele Umpires: Prageeth Rambukwella (SL) and Gazi Sohel (Ban) Player of the match: Mujeeb Ur Rahman (B-Love Kandy)
Rahmanullah Gurbaz 54 (39) Shakib Al Hasan 2/31 (4 overs)
Jaffna Kings won by 8 wickets Pallekele International Cricket Stadium, Pallekele Umpires: Kumar Dharmasena (SL) and Raveendra Wimalasiri (SL) Player of the match: Dunith Wellalage (Jaffna Kings)
Match 8 5 August 2023 15:00 Scorecard
Playoffs
Dambulla Aura won the toss and elected to field.
Jaffna Kings won the toss and elected to field.
B-Love Kandy won the toss and elected to bat.
