The Lanka Premier League announced its rules for the player draft ahead of the upcoming season, including a requirement of social media following for cricketers to register.
Lanka Premier League outlines social media requirements for player registration
The latest season of Sri Lanka's franchise T20 tournament was set to take place in November-December 2025, before it was postponed in order to ready the venues for the men's T20 World Cup in 2026. In April, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) confirmed that the new season would now run from July 10 to August 5, 2026.
Yesterday (May 8), as reported by Newswire, the board announced the categories and squad structure ahead of the player draft. The draft date has not yet been confirmed, but the player portal for registration is open until May 18, 2026.
LPL 2026: Squad structure
| Category | No. of players | Fee per player (USD) |
| Icon - Local* | 1 | 60,000 - 80,000 |
| Icon - Overseas* | 1 | 60,000 - 80,000 |
| Star - Local* | 1 | 60,000 - 80,000 |
| Star - Overseas* | 1 | 60,000 - 80,000 |
| Platinum - Local | 1 | 50,000 |
| Platinum - Overseas | 1 | 50,000 |
| Gold - Local | 3 | 30,000 |
| Gold - Overseas | 1 | 30,000 |
| Classic - Local | 3 | 20,000 |
| Classic - Overseas | 2 | 20,000 |
| Associate Stars - Overseas | 1 | 15,000 |
| Emerging - U23 | 2 | 10,000 |
| Optional: Gold - Local | 1 | 30,000 |
| Optional: Classic - Local | 1 | 20,000 |
*Mandatory direct signings before the draft
SLC also outlined detailed requirements for the player categories, as follows:
- Icon: At least 75 T20Is + 100 franchise T20 matches + 30 matches in the past 18 months + 250,000 social media followers
- Star: At least 50 T20Is + 100 franchise T20 matches + 30 matches in the past 18 months + 250,000 social media followers
- Gold: At least 30 T20Is + 75 franchise T20 matches + 20 matches in the past 18 months + 150,000 social media followers
- Classic: At least 20 T20Is + 50 franchise T20 matches + 20 matches in the past 18 months + reasonable fan base and commercial appeal
It is unclear what constitutes "reasonable fan base and commercial appeal". In addition, SLC have stated that all overseas players must have either represented their national teams or played in a top-tier T20 league organised by a Full Member board, ILT20 (UAE) or Major League Cricket (USA) within the last 12 months.
This is the first instance of a Full Member board formalising a social media following as a registration requirement. However, the EUT20 league in Belgium, started earlier this year, had similar requirements.
How many players would fulfil the LPL criteria?
The sheer number of requirements has caused many to wonder how many players will realistically fulfil the top criteria. As far as local icon players go, even Pathum Nissanka, currently one of the country's biggest stars, may not qualify; he has played 91 T20Is overall.
His social media following exceeds 500,000, with over 300,000 on Facebook and 242,000 on Instagram. However, Nissanka has played just 48 franchise T20 matches in his career. This may rise to 50 by the time the draft comes, but is unlikely to exceed 75, so as the rules stand, he would only qualify for the "classic" category – a contract worth USD 20,000. By contrast, he is currently playing in the IPL on a contract worth close to USD 400,000.
Additional complications may arise from the timing of the league. Running from July to August, it will overlap with The Hundred in England, which further dents player availability. The men's national teams of Pakistan, New Zealand, Afghanistan, Ireland and West Indies are set to be in action during this time as well.
Update: The player requirement regarding social media following was removed by the league on May 9, a day after the initial announcement, due to online backlash.
