Sri Lanka will host Bangladesh in October

Followed by LPL in November

by Rex Clementine

Sri Lanka Cricket has confirmed hosting Bangladesh in October with the three Tests reduced to two games in order to accommodate some limited over games. Board officials also confirmed that the postponed Lanka Premier League will take place for sure this year with the event expected to start in November, following the completion of IPL.

SLC was expecting to host the inaugural edition of LPL later this month, but were forced to postpone the event as health authorities wanted strict quarantine process followed. The bone of contention was that while SLC wanted 72 hour PCR tests for players and coaches who arrive in the island from overseas, Health Ministry insisted on two week quarantine period.

There’s no issue with Bangladesh players going through quarantine as they are expected to arrive in the island three weeks prior to the opening game of the series. Bangladesh will carry two squads and will conduct training sessions in Sri Lanka prior to the series.

SLC are hopeful that by November things would have returned to normal and that they would be able to go ahead with the event.

The delaying of the tournament also enables authorities to get the logistics in order while an August start would have seen them fighting against time.

The board had outsourced the franchise based T-20 event to a Dubai based company and were insisting on team owners going through thorough background checks via ICC.

Domestic cricket resumed after a break of five month earlier in the week and officials are hopeful that they will be able to make the transition to international cricket smoothly.

SLC was forced to postpone several series that were scheduled this year due to the outbreak of COVID 19 pandemic. While the Test series involving England was pushed to January next year, Bangladesh’s tour should have taken place in July.

India and South Africa were set to play limited over games in Sri Lanka between the two Test series by England and Bangladesh but they have been indefinitely postponed.

All around the world several sports events were either cancelled or postponed with this year’s Olympics being the major casualty. The T-20 World Cup that was scheduled to be held in October in Australia was also postponed to next year.

Football in Europe was one of the first sporting events to resume in May. England successfully hosted West Indies for a three match Test series and currently are hosting Pakistan.