Cricket: Ten Sri Lanka players opt out of Pakistan tour over security concerns
Ten Sri Lankan players, including captain Dimuth Karunaratne and veterans Lasith Malinga and Angelo Mathews, have opted out of the upcoming tour of Pakistan over security concerns, the country’s cricket board (SLC) said on Monday.
Sri Lanka are due to tour Pakistan to play three one-day internationals (ODIs) and three Twenty20 matches to be held between Sept. 27 and Oct. 9 and the board held a meeting with the players to discuss security arrangements for the tour.
Pakistan are looking to host their first test on home soil — as part of the World Test Championship in December — since a 2009 militant attack on Sri Lanka’s team bus in Lahore left six security personnel and two civilians dead while six players were injured.
The Lankan players were briefed on the security situation in the country by the SLC’s chief security advisor and were given the freedom to decide whether to take part or not.
“The meeting was aimed at informing the players about the security arrangements during the forthcoming tour and also to find out their ‘decision’ (either taking part or not) before… the selection of squads for the ODI and T20I series,” SLC said in a statement.
The other players who chose not to play were Niroshan Dickwella, Kusal Perera, Dhananjaya De Silva, Thisara Perera, Akila Dhananjaya, Suranga Lakmal and Dinesh Chandimal. Kusal Mendis was unavailable for selection due to an injury.
Last month, the SLC and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) agreed to bring forward the limited-overs leg of the split series and pushed back the two tests, which were originally set to take place in October.
Pakistan did not host international cricket for six years following the 2009 attack, with the team playing their home matches in the United Arab Emirates, but have hosted teams such as Zimbabwe and West Indies in recent years.
(Reuters)
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Who wants send the player ? why they are going to suicide ?
Why we should play with Pakistan? We should not play Pakistan in Pakistan because they treated Sri Lanka cricket badly. Pakistan is very close to a militery state. Yet they couldnt protect SL national team in Lahor. Terrorists attacked Sri Lankan players in broad day light. Pakistan Security establishment couldnt kill a single terrorist on the spot. It took a long time to catch one of them. Why they attacked Sri Lanka Team because Sri Lanka is a helpless isolated country. They wouldn’t do this to India, Australia, England, WI or NZ?
why not Select Ajantha Mendis the Mystery Bowler who retired from international cricket as he had been discriminated by the then Captain Angelo Mathews And the chief selector Sanath Jayasuriya and there are corruption aligations against them with a Indian Bokey involovement go to CLIC INFLO from 2014 and you can have the required information