Reports: Australia's Sri Lanka tour to go on despite national crisis

Australia are scheduled to visit Sri Lanka for a bilateral series in June this year. It is reported that the tour will go ahead despite the ongoing economic crisis that has affected the day-to-day lives of the people in the island nation. The confirmation has come after a mutual agreement between both Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) and Cricket Australia (CA) respectively.

Meanwhile, two of the top officials in SLC have also mentioned that there are no changes in the schedule and the Lankan squad will be announced on the morning of April 29. Apart from this, they confirmed that CA will announce their squad on the very same day and will be sending their A squad to the country ahead of the series.

As of now, there is no change: SLC Secretary

Confirming that the tour will go on smoothly,  SLC secretary Mohan de Silva said, “As of now there is no change” while speaking to Cricbuzz.

The latest development comes as a good news for Sri Lanka which is scheduled to host the Asia Cup later this year from August 27. This all-format bilateral series could go a long way in deciding whether the multi-nation event could be held in the island nation or not. Sri Lanka Cricket has been given time to confirm whether they would be able to host Asia Cup 2022 by July 27 due to the financial crisis that has not only resulted in inflation but also widespread protests across the country.

Coming back to the Australia series, the two teams will be locking horns in three T20Is, five One Day Internationals and two Test matches that are scheduled to be played between June 7 and July 12. The limited-overs series will be played in Colombo and Kandy respectively whereas the red-ball leg will be played in Galle.

After tasting success on Pakistan soil last month with victory in the Test and T20I series, the five-time world champions would be hungry to continue their dominance in the sub-continent.