Bangladesh to tour Sri Lanka
Bangladesh will be back to business as usual shortly after their gruelling ICC Cricket World Cup journey in England as the Tigers are set to play three One Day Internationals on July 26, 28 and 31 at the Premadasa International Stadium in Colombo.
The Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) confirmed the tour’s schedule in a statement. Bangladesh will become the first team to tour Sri Lanka since the deadly Easter attacks, which claimed the lives of 258 people, on April 21 earlier this year.
“Recently a security team from Bangladesh visited Sri Lanka and we got positive responses from our High Commission and the security team. We have got assurance regarding highest security for our team from the Sri Lankan Government during the visit. An advice from our security team was to play the series at one venue. So, we are going ahead with this series,” Bangladesh Cricket Board CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury told The Daily Star over phone yesterday.
“We didn’t prefer to play any practice match ahead of the tour as the team just returned after a long time abroad,” he added.
Initially, Sri Lanka had previously expected New Zealand to be the first foreign sporting visit as the Kiwis are set to arrive next month to play two Tests and three Twenty20 matches.
Since the suicide bombings on three hotels and three churches by Islamist extremists, Sri Lanka has been in a state of emergency which gives sweeping powers to police and troops to arrest and detain suspects.
The first Test between New Zealand and the hosts will begin on August 14 in Galle while the final Test match will be played in Colombo’s P. Sara stadium from August 22, according to the SLC.
The first two T20 games will be in Colombo on August 31 and September 2 respectively at the Premadasa Stadium while the final match will be on September 6 in Kandy.
