Former cricket captain Mahela Jayawardene has spearheaded the creation of the concept which was presented last year to the then SLC interim committee as well as before President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The teams were based out of five regional hubs and the concept was proposed in a bid to decentralise Sri Lanka's cricket from Colombo, and distill talent to ensure a sterner level of domestic competition.

Thilanga's alternative

The concept has been scrapped after it was proposed to hold a provincial cricket tournament on the idea of SLC Chairman - Thilanga Sumathipala.

It is said that a five-member selection panel appointed by Sumathipala has already chosen five teams of 18 players to hold this tournament.

More matches
This four-day tournament is to commence from Jan. 26. However, the final match of the club-based T20 tournament is to end on Jan. 24.

However, experts of the field say this would mean that players of the national team will have to play continuously in several competitions.

A national player who had played in the club T20 tournament will have the provincial tournament, the Indian tour from Feb. 06, the Asian Cup from Feb. 24 and the T-20 World Cup from March.