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| Lankan Coach Trevor Bayliss chatting to the younger brood upon their arrival at the Katunayake Airport (Pic by Sanka Vidanagama) |
After a gruelling latter half of 2009 during which the Lankan cricketers lost their grip on second position of the ICC Test rankings with a series loss to India but jumped a slot up in the ODI rankings after an impressive show at Bangladesh the majority of the lads are back at home trying to get a breath of fresh air away from the chores beyond the boundary line.
Now their next international engagement will be their personal contracts with the Indian Premier League, in which the majority of the national cricketers will be engaged in. From this T20 series the national cricketers will once again fly off to the Caribbean to take part in the T20 World Cup as one composition. The Lankan team is scheduled to land in the West Indies on the 28th of April.
The Caribbean excursion will be followed by the Asia Cup, but still the ACC has not been able to find the correct time slot or venue to put this show in action, as at this time the Soccer World Cup will take away the attention of the greater Television audience.
However the time frame for this tournament is allotted in June with India, Sri Lanka or Malaysia looking to act as the hosts.
Following the Asia Cup, Sri Lanka will play hosts to another tri-series in early July where New Zealand and arch rivals India will be in the fray.
The above are already agreed upon FTP engagements.
With the drop in recent Test engagements the Lankan cricket authorities are now having discussions with the Indian cricket counterparts to host 2-3 extra Test matches in Sri Lanka following the tri-series.
At present India is at the top of the ICC rankings in test match results with 124 points while South Africa is in second place with 122 points. Australia occupies the third spot with 116 points while Sri Lanka, a point below, is in fourth place.
Winning this series means India could enhance their grip on the Test match.
From August 2008 Sri Lanka and India have played six Test matches where India has won three and Sri Lanka won two.
In the first series played in Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka beat India by an innings and 239 runs at the SSC while India came back with a 170 run win in Galle. Sri Lanka reciprocated with a convincing 8 wicket win under the guidance of Mahela Jayawardena.
In their next series which took place in India late last year the first high scoring affair was drawn while India won the next two games beating Sri Lanka by innings and 144 runs and innings and 24 runs respectively.
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