By Revatha S. Silva
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Sri Lanka is going to lose possibly the highlight of their local cricket calendar this year[/caption]
India are unlikely to tour Sri Lanka in July for their scheduled three-match T20I series. Sources close to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) revealed that the Indian team’s commitments in England, where they are scheduled to play the World Test Championship (WTC) final, against New Zealand, and a subsequent bilateral series against England, are clashing with the Sri Lanka series.
But a member of the local cricket administration said yesterday (25) that they have not been communicated by the BCCI so far on any such cancellation.
“No. They (the BCCI) have not told us anything about such a cancellation,” one of the members of the Administrative Committee which runs the country’s cricket at the moment told the Morning Sports yesterday.
After Sri Lanka’s short-format tour of England in June-July, where they will play three each of ODIs and T20Is, they are to return to the country to play India later July. After that, Afghanistan are scheduled to tour here during July-August for three ODIs and three T20Is.
Previously India expressed their inability to play in the Asia Cup which Sri Lanka was to host in June this year. Sri Lanka was to host the tournament after the hosting rights of the competition were offered to Sri Lanka by the event’s original rights holders, Pakistan.
That time, some unnamed Indian board officials had been quoted as saying that, after it was confirmed that India were through to the WTC final, they had found it impossible to send the team from England to Sri Lanka during the WTC final and then again return to England for the scheduled bilateral series between England and India, after participating in the Asia Cup.
They had also suggested that time that India could send a second-string side to the Asia Cup if their “full team” cannot switch between Europe and Asia for a short duration of time. The pandemic-related quarantine requirements in different countries also had played a part in making the Indian officials to come to such a conclusion.
India might likewise seek to send a second side to the Sri Lanka series as well. Even the Sri Lanka TV broadcasters Ten/Sony would anyway be desperate to have at least a second-ranked Indian side for the T20I in July because it is those Indian tours that they can generate most of the revenue from, during their current rights cycle.
In hindsight, Ten/Sony may also disagree to telecast an Indian second-string side due to their contractual obligations with Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC). The two Indian tours, the Test and the short-format series, scheduled for last year and this year respectively, make more than 60% of the total revenue expected for the entire three-year period. This alone is testament to the fact that how enormous the financial turmoil it would be if both those two Indian tours are not going to happen in due course.