India tour Sri Lanka

SAARC may force change of Test dates and venues

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq
The 15th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) conference to be held in Colombo from July 27 to August 3 is likely to bring about a change in the Indian cricket tour itinerary.

Sri Lanka Cricket Tour Organising sources said that all hotels in Colombo were booked from July 27 to August 4 and that there were doubts about accommodating the two teams Sri Lanka and India to play a Test match in Colombo during that period.

The second Test of the three-match series is scheduled to be played at the SSC grounds from July 31 to August 4. This Test in all probability will be moved to Galle and the first Test which Galle was to host according to the original itinerary will be played at the SSC. The dates for this Test are July 23-27.

However SLC sources said that this Test may be advanced by one day because hotels were not available on July 27, the last day of the Test. The itinerary may also undergo a similar adjustment with the 3-day warm up match starting a day earlier on July 17 which happens to be a Poya Day.

The rest of the itinerary would remain unchanged.
Meanwhile at the working committee meeting held in Mumbai yesterday the Indian Cricket Board has adopted ‘a wait and see’ policy with regard to their tour to Sri Lanka. This decision comes in the wake of SLC first deciding to play a five-match one-day series in Pakistan and then going back on the decision stating that the dates for the matches should not clash with the Indian Cricket Board’s IPL tournament which is scheduled to take off on April 18.

As a result the one-dayers against Pakistan have been indefinitely postponed as the proposed dates clash with the IPL tournament for which ten of Sri Lanka’s top cricketers have been signed by the Indian Board.

The Indian tour itinerary at present reads as follows:

July 15: Arrival
July 18-20: 3-day warm-up match
July 23-27: 1st Test at Galle
July 31-Aug 4: 2nd Test at SSC
Aug 8-12: 3rd Test at R Premadasa Stadium
Aug 15: One-day warm-up match at NCC
Aug 18: 1st ODI at Dambulla
Aug 20: 2nd ODI at Dambulla
Aug 24: 3rd ODI at R Premadasa Stadium
Aug 26: 4th ODI at R Premadasa Stadium
Aug 29: 5th ODI at R Premadasa Stadium
Aug 31: Departure.