Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) have confirmed that the men’s team’s upcoming tour of Pakistan will go ahead as planned despite recent security concerns raised by its government.
Sri Lanka are slated to play three ODIs and as many T20Is in Pakistan beginning on September 27 but the tour was thrown into major doubt a few days ago after a tip-off from the Sri Lankan government for a potential terror threat.
Those concerns now seem to have been allayed by the Pakistan government with SLC secretary Mohan de Silva confirming that the tour will go ahead as scheduled.
“The Pakistan High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, on behalf of the Pakistan Government, has reaffirmed to the Sri Lankan government Pakistan’s desire to provide the Sri Lankan National Team with the same level of security as that provided to a head of state,” the SLC secretary was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.
Sri Lanka Cricket Secretary Mohan de Silva regarding the upcoming tour of Pakistan "We have the green light from the defence ministry. The tour is on as we planned. I myself and our office bearers will also be accompanying the team" #PAKvSL #Cricket
— Saj Sadiq (@Saj_PakPassion) September 19, 2019
Sri Lanka had earlier named vastly rejigged ODI and T20 squads for the tour led by Lahiru Thirimanne and Dasun Shanaka respectively after as many as 10 senior players pulled out citing security concerns. The group of players to make themselves unavailable for the tour included limited-overs skippers Lasith Malinga and Dimuth Karunaratne.
Meanwhile, Pakistan head coach and chief selector Misbah-ul-Haq had named 20 probables led by skipper Sarfraz Ahmed for the training camp currently underway in Lahore.
The two teams will first face-off in the ODI series beginning on September 27 with all three clashes set to take place in Karachi. They will then move on to Lahore for the T20I-leg of the tour with the final clash set to take place on October 9.