• Sri Lanka Premier League

ESPN to broadcast Sri Lanka Premier League Cricket

Muttiah Muralitharan will feature in the Sri Lanka Premier League © Associated Press

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ESPN has secured rights to broadcast the first season of the inaugural Mahindra Sri Lanka Premier League cricket. ESPN will show the competition in the UK and Ireland on TV, plus online highlights. It will be shown solely online in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Twenty20 competition will feature a total of 24 matches as seven teams representing the provinces of Sri Lanka compete in a round robin group stage, semi-finals and final between Saturday 11th and Friday 31st August.

ESPN UK's live coverage of the Mahindra Sri Lanka Premier League starts on Saturday August 11 with Basnahira Cricket Dundee v Kandurata Warriors live at 3.30pm, including both semi-finals on 28th and 29th August, and the final on 31st August.

The Mahindra SLPL is set to feature some of cricket's biggest names - legendary spinner Muttiah Muralitharan will appear alongside fellow Sri Lankans Tillakaratne Dilshan, Sanath Jayasuriya, Mahela Jayawardene and Angelo Matthews, as well as overseas stars including New Zealand's Jacob Oram, Nathan McCullum and Scott Styris, Pakistan's Shahid Afridi, Misbah Ul Haque, Saeed Ajmal and Umar Gul, West Indies' Shiv Chanderpaul and Jerome Taylor, Australia's Dirk Nannes, John Hastings, Andrew McDonald and Brad Hodge, and, South Africa's Loots Bosman.

An impressive line-up of former international players will form the presentation team on ESPN throughout the tournament. Former Australian stars Dean Jones and Jeff Thomson, ex-Pakistani batsman Rameez Raja, the West Indies' Jeff Dujon, former Sri Lankan opening batsman Russel Arnold and his fellow countryman Roshan Abeysinghe will offer their insight and expertise.

Jeroen Oerlemans, vice-president, TV Channels, ESPN EMEA, said: "The inaugural season of the Mahindra Sri Lanka Premier League cricket will feature some of the biggest stars in the sport. This is a great addition to our schedule in a month that is already full of top class sporting action including the return of the new football seasons around the UK and Europe."

Sri Lanka Premier League rights holder Somerset Entertainment Ventures' chairman Sandiip Bhammer said the partnership was an exciting one. "ESPN is the ideal platform to take Sri Lanka's message in respect of a seminal cricket tournament of this stature to the rest of the world, especially at the end of the 30 years war, and we're very confident of, and proud to be associated with a channel of the calibre of ESPN which has such fantastic following within its respective territories."

Live Sri Lanka Premier League Cricket on ESPN in the UK:
***Schedule subject to change***
Saturday 11th August
15:30 Basnahira Cricket Dundee v Kandurata Warriors
Monday 13th August
15:30 Kandurata Warriors v Nagenahira Nagas
Tuesday 14th August
15:30 Ruhuna Royals v Uthura Rudras
Friday 17th August
11:30 Basnahira Cricket Dundee v Nagenahira Nagas
15:30 Wayamba United v Uva Next
Monday 20th August
11:30 Kandurata Warriors v Ruhuna Royals
15:30 Nagenahira Nagas v Wayamba United
Tuesday 21st August
11:30 Ruhuna Royals v Uva Next
15:30 Uthura Rudras v Basnahira Cricket Dundee
Friday 24th August
15:30 Wayamba United v Kandaruta Warriors
Saturday 25th August
11:30 Basnahira Cricket Dundee v Ruhuna Royals
Monday 27th August
15:30 Uva Next v Nagenahira Nagas
Tuesday 28th August
15:30 TBC - Semi Final
Wednesday 29th August
15:30 TBC - Semi Final
Friday 31st August
15:30 TBC - Final

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.