The luxury form of Cricket takes another birth in Sri Lanka with the support of Indian automobile giant Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. The Mahindra Sri Lanka Premier League (MSLPL)  is all set to lure the cricket fans for the next three weeks. The twenty days carnival commences today at 7:30 p.m. in Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium. Today's inaugural ceremony is filled with Sri Lankan flavored cultural and international entertainment events.

However the actual carnival of MSLPL shall commence on August 11 and hall be held at two venues,  Colombo and Kandy. The tournament will be running till 31st August 2012. The T20 games will commence with seven provincial teams in a round-robin league format. The winners will be playing in the Champions League Twenty20 (CLT20) as one of the teams in the qualifiers.

West Indian batsman Chris Gayle and Pakistani all-rounder Shahid Afridi will feature in the MSLPL along with Pakistani off-spinner Saeed Ajmal, Australians Brad Hodge and Dirk Nannes, Tamim Iqbal from Bangladesh and West Indies batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul. Jacob Oram and Scott Styris from New Zealand are some of the other major players who will star in the inaugural edition which will also see Sri Lanka's big guns -- Muttiah Muralitharan, Mahela Jayawardene and Lasith Malinga.
There will be 24 games in the MSLPL. Each team will be allowed a maximum of 18 players. The teams will be allowed to field a maximum of four foreign players per game with the remaining being local players. (With inputs from internet-AW AarKay)