Sri Lanka tour of Pak hits a roadblock

From ANI

Karachi, Dec.31: The Sri Lankan tour of Pakistan seems to have hit another road block just when the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) was preparing to host Sri Lanka for a test and one day international series.

The Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has turned down the PCB's proposal to play three tests and five one-dayers.

"Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has turned down the Pakistan Cricket Board's proposal to play three Tests and five one-dayers, making it clear that such an assignment would put extra work-load on their players," The News quoted an SLC source, as saying.

SLC is now insisting that they want to delay their proposed tour of Pakistan by three weeks and reduce it to two Tests, three One-day Internationals and twenty20 game.

The SLC's demand for rescheduling the series has created another headache for PCB as Pakistan has to tour Bangladesh from March 3.Any rescheduling would now mean clashing of dates with the Bangladesh series.

"The situation is tricky now, because if we go by Sri Lanka's revised itinerary then this series clashes with our confirmed tour of Bangladesh scheduled from March 3," chief operating officer of PCB Saleem Altaf, said.

The Sri Lanka tour of Pakistan has been 'troubled' earlier also. The interim committee of the SLC was disbanded and its chief Arjuna Ranatunga was sacked when he allowed the team to visit Pakistan. Later President Mahinda Rajapakse gave the series a green signal.

It seems that problems for PCB are endless. After a series of cancellation of tours Pakistan is hoping to play a test match for the first time in a year, but the latest controversy regarding dates has clouds of uncertainty hovering over the home series against Sri Lanka too.


Copyright Asian News International/DailyIndia.com