Only a single ‘A’ team engagement in 2013
View(s):In spite of Lankan cricket presently going through a period of uncertainty and with supplies to the national grid from the junior levels being limited, the Sri Lanka ‘A’ team will have only one engagement in 2013.
The only ‘A’ team tour in the pipeline for this year will be a tour of the West Indies, which will take place in May-June. The Lorgat report, which was compiled and released by the former ICC CEO Haroon Lorgat at the end of last year, stated in its introduction that, “Even though Sri Lanka Cricket presently boasts a reasonably successful national team (This was released prior to the Lankan tour of Australia) and squad players, it faces very challenging strategic, financial, administrative and operational issues. After once being among the top four teams in the ICC Reliance Test rankings table, the team presently ranked 6th (92 rating points as at January 9, 2013) in Test cricket and 5th (110 rating points as at January 9, 2013) in the ODI table and 1st (127 rating points) in the T-20 table. Statistically, a rating of less than 100 rating points is regarded as a weak standing.” The same report added, “More worryingly, in August 2012, the Under 19 team finished 9th in the ICC Under 19 Cricket World Cup and the ‘A’ team was roundly beaten on tour to South Africa and Zimbabwe in July 2012.” Amidst those worrying comments nothing seems to have been done where the ‘A’ team is concerned.
However, the Under 19 team, which will play the next Under 19 World Cup in Dubai nextFebruary has three engagements. In April 2013, they will travel to Bangladesh and then comeback home to host the West Indies in July.
Besides that, the Australian Under 19 team will arrive in the island for a short visit in December, prior to the World Cup in Dubai.It is also interesting to note that the inaugural Under 23 Asia Cup tournament is now slated to be played in Singapore in August this year, but further details are not available. -SRP
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