10 Sri Lankan players opt out of Pakistan tour as PCB's plans of hosting Test cricket in Pakistan left in quandary
Pakistan Cricket Board's hopes of hosting Test cricket in the country suffered a major setback as 10 players have decided to opt out of the limited-overs tour of Pakistan, citing security reasons. Lasith Malinga and Dimuth Karunaratne's decision makes the Sri Lankan team bereft of any star names.
In Pakistan's quest to bring Test cricket back to Pakistan, the cricket board requested Sri Lanka to play two Tests in their Test Championship campaign in the country but the Island nation rather agreed to play three ODIs in Karachi on September 27, 29 and October 3, followed by as many T20Is in Lahore on October 5, 7 and 9 during the tour. But they assured that they will return in December for the Test series that will be a part of the World Test Championship.
The limited-overs leg would have given Sri Lanka Cricket assurance about the security arrangements in place to make way for the Test Championship. However, with players like Niroshan Dickwella, Kusal Perera, Dhananjaya de Silva, Thisara Perera, Akila Dananjaya, Lasith Malinga, Angelo Mathews, Suranga Lakmal, Dinesh Chandimal and Dimuth Karunaratne not ready to be part of the limited-overs tour, PCB's plans have taken a major setback.
"Sri Lanka Cricket today held a meeting with players, who were chosen as part of a preliminary squad to select the team, which will be touring Pakistan to play 03 ODIs and 03 T20i matches, starting from 27th September to 09th October, 2019," an official Sri Lanka Cricket statement read, reported TOI.
While the pulling out might not affect the ODI schedule, Sri Lanka Cricket is almost certain to refuse to play those Tests in Pakistan, considering championship points are at stake. However, it is to be noted that SLC had tried its best to convince its players, who were part of the preliminary squad for the tour, about the security arrangements in Pakistan. A former Sri Lankan Air Force Commander had also conveyed his confidence in those arrangements to the players.
"Former Sri Lanka Air Force Commander, Marshal Air Roshan Goonetileke, who is the Chief Security Advisor of the SLC, briefed the players about the security situation in Pakistan and the security arrangements PCB plans on implementing during Sri Lanka team's tour of that country, whilst Chairman of the National Selection Panel Mr. Asantha De Mel, explained about the selection policy for future tours. He said, players will be given the freedom to decide on either taking part or not in the forthcoming Pakistan tour.
"Accordingly, the following players chose to stay away from the upcoming Pakistan series - Niroshan Dickwella, Kusal Janith Perera, Dhananjaya De Silva, Thisara Perera, Akila Dhananjaya, Lasith Malinga, Angelo Mathews, Suranga Lakmal, Dinesh Chandimal, Dimuth Karunaratne. Following the meeting with the players, the National Selectors, selected a T20i and ODI squad to tour Pakistan, and the respective squads will be sent to the approval of the Minister of Telecommunication, Foreign Employment and Sports Honorable Harin Fernando in due course," the statement further read.
However, after players decided against it, the board has ultimately respected the players' wishes and according to an SLC release, chief selector Ashantha de Mel had told players that refusal to tour Pakistan on this occasion would not affect their selection for future series. Pakistan also accepted the decision of the Sri Lankan cricketers, while confirming that the tour will go on as planned.
"The PCB understands and respects it is the prerogative of Sri Lanka Cricket to select the best available players for the upcoming tour for white-ball cricket. As far as the PCB is concerned, the tour is on and we look forward to welcoming the Sri Lanka team in Karachi later this month," a spokesperson said.
All said and done, this might have hurt PCB's sentiments because they were the first team to send a team to Sri Lanka following this year's Easter Sunday attacks. When cricket tours on the island faced an uncertain future, the PCB had sent its Under-19 team to Sri Lanka for five ODIs only a month after the attacks, which helped as Sri Lanka hosted Bangladesh and New Zealand after that.
