The Uva Next was a franchise

cricket team Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by strikin ...

that took part in

Sri Lanka Premier League The Sri Lanka Premier League (SLPL) was a Twenty20 cricket competition in Sri Lanka. It was intended to be the premier Twenty20 league in the country, held by Sri Lanka Cricket, when it replaced the Inter-Provincial Twenty20 competition. After ...

, representing

Uva UVA most often refers to: * Ultraviolet A, a type of ultraviolet radiation * University of Virginia, a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States Uva or UVA may also refer to: Places * Uva, Missouri, an unincorpora ...

. Success Sports Private Limited purchased the team for $4.6 million in 2012. They was owned for seven years, after which a new agreement may be negotiated.

History

The Uva cricket team was a Sri Lankan cricket team that represented the Uva Province. The team was established in 2004 and only featured in the 2003-04 season of the Inter-Provincial First Class Tournament. The team was captained by Chaminda Vaas. In the 2011 edition of

the Uva Province team was known as the Uva Unicorns. But after the franchise model was introduced the team owners changed the name to Uva Next. After the franchise model was introduced for the

in 2012, Uva made a reappearance in the Sri Lankan cricketing arena as Uva Next. The team was captained by

Thilina Kandamby Sahan Hewa Thilina Kandambi (born 4 June 1982) is a former Sri Lankan cricketer and a former T20 international captain for Sri Lanka. A specialist middle-order batsman, Kandambi was marked out as a talent early, playing for the Sri Lanka Under 1 ...

in the 2012 season as their marquee player Chris Gayle could not participate due to an injury.

2012 Season

The team was one of only seven teams taking part in the inaugural edition of the

held in August 2012. During the first player Draft for the inaugural SLPL season, conducted in July 2012, the Uva team bought a number of contemporary star cricketers such as Chris Gayle,

Umar Gul Umar Gul (Urdu: , ps, عمر گل) (born 15 October 1982 ) is a Pakistani cricket coach and former cricketer who is the current bowling coach of Quetta Gladiators. He played all three formats of the game as a right arm fast medium bowler for ...

Upul Tharanga Warushavithana Upul Tharanga (born 2 February 1985), commonly known as Upul Tharanga ( si, උපුල් තරංග), is a former professional Sri Lankan cricketer, and a former limited over captain who played for all formats of the game. He ...

Jacob Oram Jacob David Philip Oram (born 28 July 1978) is a former New Zealand international cricketer, who played all forms of the game for 10 years. He was a left-handed batsman and a right-arm fast-medium bowler. His ability with both bat and ball mad ...

Shivnarine Chanderpaul Shivnarine "Shiv" Chanderpaul (born 16 August 1974) is a Guyanese cricket coach and former captain of the West Indies cricket team. Considered one of the greatest batsmen of his era, Chanderpaul is the first Indo-Caribbean to play 100 Tests for ...

and

. Gayle became the costliest player of the draft, as the Uva franchise bought him for $100,000. They also bought

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

n and Foreign Internationals such as

Sachithra Senanayake Senanayake Mudiyanselage Sachithra Madhushanka Senanayake, commonly called Sachithra Senanayake ( si, සචිත්‍ර සේනානායක; born 9 February 1985) is a former professional Sri Lankan cricketer who played all three formats ...

, Dilhara Fernando,

Seekkuge Prasanna Seekkuge Prasanna ( si, සීක්කුගේ ප්‍රසන්න ; born 27 June 1985) is a professional Sri Lankan cricketer, who plays for limited over cricket. He is a warrant officer Warrant officer (WO) is a rank or category of ...

, Callum Ferguson, Andrew McDonald,

Shoaib Malik Shoaib Malik ( Punjabi, ur, ; born 1 February 1982) is a Pakistani cricketer who plays for the Pakistan national cricket team and currently plays for Karachi Kings in the Pakistan Super League (PSL). He was the captain of the Pakistan national ...

and some very promising domestic players such as

Dilshan Munaweera Eldenia Medagedara Dilshan yasika Munaweera, commonly known as Dilshan Munaweera ( si, ඩිල්ශාන් මුණවීර; born 24 April 1989 in Colombo), is a professional Sri Lankan cricketer, who plays limited over formats for the n ...

, Banuka Rajapaksha and

Charith Jayampathi Charith Jayampathi (born 1 February 1991) is a Sri Lankan first-class cricketer.https://www.margaretrivermail.com.au/story/6659369/hawks-back-on-top-as-they-face-dunsborough-for-hosting-rights/ He plays for Tamil Union Cricket and Athletic Club. ...

. The Uva Next got on to a great start defeating a very strong Basnahira Cricket Dundee team in their opening match. The strong Uva bowling line up which performed really well in their opening match was very well backed up with their batting. But the winning ways quickly came to an end when they met the red hot favorites of the tournament Wayamba United. Though their bowlers restricted the opposition to a competitive score the uva batting collapsed giving Wayamba United the win. Although losing their second match the Uva Next team soon got into winning ways defeating Uthura Rudras and Ruhuna Royals to record two consecutive wins. This meant that they had to win only one more match to qualify for the semi-finals. The next match with the Kandurata Warriors was an important game for both teams meaning that the winner would join

Wayamba United Wayamba United was a franchise cricket team that took part in Sri Lanka Premier League, representing North Western Province. Wadhawan Holdings Private Limited purchased the team for $5.02 million in 2012 for a seven-year contract. History ...

in the semi-finals. For the joy of both teams the match was abandoned due to heavy rains this meant that both teams would qualify for the semis. The last match in the group stage was Played against the Nagenahira Nagas this match was an important match because the loser of this match would face Wayamba United in the semi-finals. Both teams were in hot pursuit of winning to avoid facing the strongest team the

. Uva Next scored 160 runs but this wasn't enough against a strong batting order plus about three of their best player had to leave during the match due to injury. In the first semi-final Uva were lucky to retain two of their injured players but they lost Upul Tharanga due to a finger dislocation. Uva had a bad start and was scoring at a slow pace but because of a calm innings by Chandrpaul and a quick fire 40 by Oram Uva managed to score 171 runs. With the ball it was a magical start by uva taking the first 7 wickets for just 27 runs but a good partnership between Azar Mahamood and Isuru Udana Wayaba United scored 151 runs. But this meant that Uva Next would face the Nagenahira Nagas in the final of the inaugural edition of

. In the final Nagenahira chose to bat they could not get of to a flyer but after 9.1 overs because of rain the game was shorten to a 15 over match Nagas scored 135 curtsy a 27 ball 73 by Angelo Matthews. Knowing the weather Uva got to a flying start but after 5.1 overs rain returned and the match was stopped according to (D/L) method Uva needed to score 44 runs they scored 63 runs and was crowned the first ever champions of SLPL and qualified for the Champions League.

Squad

The captain of Uva Next in the inaugural season of SLPL was supposed to be Chris Gayle but due to an injury the captaincy was awarded to former Sri Lankan vice-captain

was brought in as a replacement to the fellow

West Indian A West Indian is a native or inhabitant of the West Indies (the Antilles and the Lucayan Archipelago). For more than 100 years the words ''West Indian'' specifically described natives of the West Indies, but by 1661 Europeans had begun to use it ...

. Chris Gayle was named the icon player for Uva and he received the highest salary in the SLPL of $100,000. The Uva Next squad consisted of six overseas players in the tournament having some of the worlds best T20 players such as

. Uva also got some of the best upcoming local Sri Lankan players. Players with international caps are listed in bold.

Player list

Results

Overall results

Result summary

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ;Semi-final 1 ---- ;Final

References

External links

Team site on ESPN CricInfo
{{Sri Lanka Premier League Sri Lanka Premier League teams Sports clubs in Sri Lanka Cricket clubs established in 2012 Cricket clubs disestablished in 2012 2012 establishments in Sri Lanka Badulla 2012 disestablishments in Sri Lanka