Sri Lanka looking for other options to overcome cricket drought
With Sri Lanka’s tour of Zimbabwe postponed indefinitely on the request of the hosts, Sri Lanka Cricket is looking at other options so that the national cricket team will not be idling till the end of the year.
The Lankan tour of Zimbabwe was scheduled to take place from October 3 to November 5 where they were down to play two Test matches and a series of limited overs games.
Sangakkara and Ranatunga during better times. - File pic
Secretary of Sri Lanka Cricket Nishantha Ranatunga told the Sunday Times “We got the confirmation of the Zimbabwe tour being postponed only in the latter part of last week. However we cannot keep the national team idling for such a long period. We have taken steps to look at some other options. First the Australians are scheduled to visit India in October for a series of matches. We have already written to them and sought their acceptance for a series in between.
“Then there is New Zealand, England and the West Indies who have no engagements at this time. We also have written to them seeking their availability.’ At the same time we are even willing to undertake a tour to those destinations if they do agree for a series”.
“We received an e-mail from the Zimbabwe Cricket Union seeking a postponement of the tour and the reason given was ‘due to unavoidable circumstances’,” Nishantha Ranatunga, added.
The present situation is a double blow to Sri Lanka cricket. First the Sri Lanka Premier League tournament, which was scheduled to begin in August, was cancelled when the Singapore based company Somerset Entertainments, the SLC’s management partners of the T-20 tournament failed to attract any bidders for the local franchises. Now the cancellation of the Zimbabwe tour has further hampered cricket in the country.
It is understood that cash strapped Zimbabwe after hosting India and Pakistan consecutively are not in position to host Sri Lanka – a third country within the space of four months.
Meanwhile Ranatunga speaking about the Sangakkara issue stated that at no time the SLC brought the subject of money verses country. “It is a total fabrication of Sangakkara. According to the tripartite agreement the home board has no authority to hold the player back, we gave him the choice to select where he was going to play and he chose to play for the Kandurata team.”
However it is understood that the SLC may not take any disciplinary action against Sangakkara for talking to the media without their permission.
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