BY REVATHA S. SILVA England, West Indies, Pakistan, and Australia have already played international cricket – either Test or ODI games – while others like New Zealand and Bangladesh have already confirmed their international assignments for the coming months. The entire Indian contingent is in full flow now in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), playing the fiercely competitive Indian Premier League (IPL). The IPL includes leading South Africa players too. But Sri Lanka’s first international assignment in the post-Covid-19 world is still in absolute uncertainty, that too after having controlled the outbreak of the virus much better than most of their counterparts of the international scene. Australia and New Zealand begin action After the IPL, India will tour Australia for the latter’s usual summer series. The series includes four Tests and three ODIs to be played from 3 December 2020 to 17 January 2021. Pakistan will tour New Zealand, as it was confirmed this week, for three T20Is and two Tests to be played from 18 December 2020 to 7 January 2021. Others getting ready positively Bangladesh, meanwhile, is to start their domestic cricket soon and will most likely stage her Test series with Afghanistan in November. Zimbabwe unveiled this week a new national club tournament named the National Premier League (NPL), which is to get underway across the country this weekend. SL unconfirmed, Bangladesh confirmed Adding more puzzles to the already awkward situation, New Zealand confirmed on Tuesday (29 September) that their three-match ODI and three-match T20I series against Bangladesh, which was initially scheduled for this October, is confirmed to be staged from 13-28 March 2021. This happens in a context where Sri Lanka’s short format series in New Zealand in February 2021 is yet to be confirmed. Sri Lanka is supposed to play three ODIs and three T20Is against New Zealand in New Zealand in the first three weeks of February under the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Future Tours Programme. Are we too naïve? This broad picture comes to indicate that out of the main Test-playing countries, only Sri Lanka that is outstanding as a country that has not confirmed any international series in the near, foreseeable future. Is it for the fact that “we” have been rightly cautious and the rest of the Test-playing world is too reckless in arranging matches? Or else, are “we” too extra-cautious, and bitterly naïve, while all others being positive and progressive in facing the challenges faced in the pandemic times?