Sri Lankan cricket authorities have confirmed their tour to Pakistan next month and February, a Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) official said yesterday.
Pakistan had invited Sri Lanka to play three Tests, three one-day internationals and a Twenty20 game after the Indian government refused to permit its team to undertake their Test tour of Pakistan from next month.
India called off the tour on Thursday amid simmering tension between the nuclear-armed neighbors over the militant attacks in Mumbai last month.
“Sri Lanka has agreed in principle to tour for the series. We are now working out the final details ... of the tour with them,” said Saleem Altaf, chief operating officer of the PCB.
Altaf said the president of the Sri Lankan board, Arjuna Ranatunga, had sent his consent for the tour after Pakistan invited them for the unscheduled series.
“Sri Lanka will travel to Pakistan straight from Bangladesh where their tour ends in the third week of January,” Altaf said.
He said Sri Lanka would start off with a Twenty20 game and a one-day international in Karachi and then play two one-day games and a Test in Lahore.
Meanwhile, former Test captains Imran Khan and Wasim Akram joined the local media yesterday in hitting out at India’s decision to cancel next month’s tour.
The 1992 World Cup-winning captain Khan said India’s decision exposed its “double standards” as it did everything to convince England to return to India and play two Tests after the attacks.
“If the Indian team had toured Pakistan it would have given a clear message to the terrorists that players and people of both countries have not bowed in front of them,” Khan was quoted in the urdu Daily Express. “It was the reason that England returned to India.”
Another former skipper Akram, who played with Khan in the 1992 World Cup, hoped that cricket ties between the neighboring countries would soon be revived.
“I had thought that India would not mix cricket with politics, but after this [cancellation] one should hope that it’s a temporary phase,” Akram said.
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