Colombo, Jan 19 (IANS): Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) on Wednesday announced the launch of the National Super League (NSL), which will be the country's 'Elite Domestic Cricketing Competition'.

Once in operation, NSL will act as the primary competition for national selections. The NSL will comprise of five teams -- Colombo, Jaffna, Galle, Kandy and Dambulla -- and will see the country's top-100 cricketers playing in the competition and be in the reckoning for national selection.

The 26 major clubs, playing first-class premier club competition, have been "clustered under the five teams". The players for the respective NSL teams will come only from the allocated clubs and not from outside.

SriLanka Cricket also said that NCC, SSC, Tamil Union, Colts CC, and CCC will function as the centres of excellence (COE) for each group and the respective clubs were selected based on fulfilling several criteria, such as, "having an own ground with turf wickets, side practice nets, indoor nets, gymnasium, own swimming pool and also have looked at the period of existence of these clubs, first-class cricketing history, and the number of national players produced."

The NSL will have a 50-over tournament and a four-day tournament. The 50-over tournament will commence on January 24, while the four-day tournament will follow immediately.

"The NSL will help enhance the club competition, as players taking part in the Major Clubs Tournament will try to compete at the highest level in order to get into their respective NSL team, as players for the NSL team will be picked based on the performances in the Club Tournament. Each NSL team will have a Head Coach and an Assistant Head Coach along with a team of support staff," SLC said in a statement.

The player selection for the NSL teams will be done by the respective cluster coach along with a national selector.