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Champions Trophy brought forward |
New Zealand cricketers will arrive in Colombo on August 4 and will start rolling off with a three-day match warm-up at the Colts grounds from 7 to 9 August. Thereafter the Kiwis will move over to the NCC grounds to play their second warm-up game against a SLC selected Xl from 12-14 August.
Once again the real tour opener will be at the Mahinda Rajapakse International Cricket Stadium, Galle from 18-22 August when the two teams take on each other in the first Test at Galle
The Sinhalese Sports Club will host the second Test which will be played from 26 to 30 August.
The two T20 games will be played under lights at the R. Premadasa Stadium on September 2 and 4.
At this point the Indian cricketers will cross Palk Strait to join the Kiwis and the Lankans in the tri-series. All matches in this tournament will be played at the Premadasa stadium. The matches will be Sept 8: Sri Lanka v New Zealand, Sept 10: India v Sri Lanka, Sept 12: India v New Zealand and the final will be played on the 14th of September.
Meanwhile the ICC has decided to bring forward the Champions Trophy which was shifted to South Africa from Pakistan by two days.
The September 22 to October 5 tournament, which was originally slated to begin on September 24, will be played at Centurion and Wanderers, with 15 matches to be played in 14 days.
Australia, India, Pakistan and the West Indies are placed in group A while South Africa, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and England form group B.
The top two teams from both groups qualify for the semi-finals.
The final fixtures will be announced later.
The absence of Zimbabwe and Bangladesh means there is no need for a qualifying round, as happened at the 2006 event.
(SRP) |
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