Reports | Second Sri Lanka versus Pakistan Test likely to be shifted to Galle
Sri Lankan players celebrating after Test win vs Bangladesh.
|ICC
As per ESPNCricinfo, the second Test match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka, set to begin on July 24, is expected to be moved from Colombo to Galle. The change in the ongoing two-match series is likely to be made because there is a possibility of political demonstrations in the island's capital.
As the fear around ongoing political demonstrations may cause logistical challenges in Colombo, the second Test match between Sri Lanka and Pakistan is expected to be shifted to Galle from the initial venue in the island's capital, as reported by ESPNCricinfo.
"While at no stage have cricket matches been threatened by the large-scale civil unrest seen in Sri Lanka over the last few months, and particularly in the past week, there are fears that masses descending on Colombo's streets again may create logistical challenges for a Test match," an ESPNCricinfo report read.
Recently on July 9, Galle also saw a protest which was on the second day of the Test match between Sri Lanka and Australia. However, the game was not affected because of it as the scale of the crowd was not as big as during the Colombo protests.
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Find OutAlthough there have been no such incidents where a cricket match has been disrupted due to the protests in Sri Lanka, there is a possibility since the demonstrations have only increased over a period of time.
"Two of the three T20Is and three of the ODIs from the Australia tour were all played at Khettarama stadium. While those games were almost uniformly well-attended and went off, as usual, the scale of the political demonstrations has increased substantially in Colombo since then. Khettarama was scheduled to host the second Test against Pakistan but if it shifts to Galle, this would be the third successive home Test series to be played exclusively at the venue," the report added.
Sri Lanka and Pakistan are currently playing in Galle for the first Test of the two-match series. By the time of writing, the visitors reached 21/1 after bowling out the Dimuth Karunaratne-led side for 222.
