10 senior Sri Lankan cricketers have opted not to tour Pakistan later this month due to safety concerns, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) announced on Monday (9).
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After a meeting held at the SLC premises on Monday, where Former Sri Lanka Air Force Commander, 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 Lankas’ tour of Pakistan, 10 players officially chose to not travel to Pakistan for the two-week tour.
The reason for the players’ boycott is mainly due to the fact that the Sri Lankan team bus was attacked by armed gunmen in March 2009, which left six players injured and resulted in the deaths of six Pakistani police officers and two civilians.
For the first time since 2009, Pakistan is preparing to host international cricket for more than two weeks that involves both ODIs and T20s. A second-string Sri Lankan team played a single T20I match in October in 2017 while the ICC World Eleven and West Indies have also played short T20 series in Pakistan in the last two years.
Sri Lanka tour of Pakistan; Fixtures announced!
Chief Selector Asantha De Mel, has given the green light to the following players 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
Kusal Mendis, is not available for selection due to a hairline injury, which he picked up during the recent New Zealand T20 series.
Karachi’s National Stadium will host the three-match ODI series beginning on the 27th September, while the three T20Is will be played at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore, the first of which will be played on 5th October.
Fixtures
- 1st ODI – 27 September at Karachi
- 2nd ODI – 29 September at Karachi
- 3rd ODI – 2 October at Karachi
- 1st T20I – 5 October at Lahore
- 2nd T20I – 7 October at Lahore
- 3rd T20I – 9 October at Lahore
 announced on Monday (9).){kind=link}