England tour of Sri Lanka rescheduled to January, claims SLC CEO

Colombo, May 2

England’s Test tour of Sri Lanka, which could not be completed in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, has been rescheduled to January next year, claims SLC CEO Ashley de Silva.

England had spent around 10 days in Sri Lanka in March and played a warm-up match before the tour was called-off due to the coronavirus outbreak. It was supposed to be a two-Test series as part of the World Test Championship.

“We are in the process of rescheduling the tours that have been postponed. England has been already rescheduled for the month of January next year but the dates have not been finalised,” de Silva told Daily News.

“At the same time, we are also looking at exploring the possibility of rescheduling postponed tours and looking at the windows which are available and alternatives too.

“South Africa is one of the tours which we are looking at rescheduling. We are engaged in discussions with the member countries and see how it can be planned out.”    

However, England are scheduled to tour India in January for a five-Test series, so, it remains to be seen how the scheduling will work out.

All cricketing activity has come to a halt due to the pandemic, throwing the international calendar haywire.

India too were scheduled to tour Sri Lanka for a limited overs series after the IPL, which has been postponed indefinitely.

“There are also two other tours which are scheduled to take place, with India and Bangladesh due to tour Sri Lanka in June-July and July-August respectively.

“We will explore the possibility of playing those two tours in another week or two,” de Silva added. PTI