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Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is set to launch its new Twenty20 league in August, more than an year after it was postponed due to the pull out of Indian players. SLC president Upali Dharmadasa announced that the league will start on August 10 and hoped that it will be a spectacular event. The new T20 league will feature seven provincial teams, which will stick to a compulsory ruling of no more than 6 overseas players in each squad. Sri Lanka Cricket secretary Nishantha Ranathunga said they have "written to all the boards last week and most of the countries have shown interest. But it is too premature to announce the names." Ranathunga hopes that Indian players, who were unavailable for last year's tournament, will take part because it "will add a lot of glamour and value to the tournament." India stopped its players from taking part in the Sri Lanka Premier League last year, citing the reason that a private company was organizing the tournament, Sports24 reports. Praveen Kumar, Munaf Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin were among the twelve Indian players who were expected to take part in the tournament. Without the participation of the Indian players, tournament organizers and Sri Lanka Cricket would have found it difficult to get rewarding contracts from Indian broadcasters.

Sri Lanka T20 league set to be launched in August