BCCI didn't intervene in the board's decision to tour Pakistan, says SLC official
Harin Fernando, Sri Lanka’s Sports minister has blown away claims that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has threatened them to exclude their players from the Indian Premier League if they toured Pakistan. The Lankans are currently touring Pakistan for a bilateral series.
Pakistan’s Minister for Science and Technology, Fawad Chaudhary had alleged that the BCCI was pressurising Sri Lankan players not to tour Pakistan and tweeted that the Indian sports authorities were using cheap tactics. Sri Lankan official Fernando clearly that the BCCI had not intervened regarding the matter.Â
“To be honest with all fairness to the (Pakistan) minister, it caused a lot of controversy as only (Lasith) Malinga had a contract to play in the Indian Premier League. I got into a situation where the Indian High Commission and everybody started talking to me and said to retweet that they had nothing to do with it which I did and that is the truth,” said Fernando as per reports of scroll.in
Sri Lanka is currently touring Pakistan for a three-match T20I series followed by an ODI series of the same length. Fernando opined that these incidents did not affect their decision as they stood by their decision to travel to Pakistan.
“It is a fact. I said it was nothing and we stand by our decision and we wanted to go. But from there onwards it became a different problem and Sri Lanka got sandwiched in between. We were lucky we got ourselves out of it,” added Fernando.
