Sri Lanka Tour Of Pakistan 2019
Sri Lankan cricket board has agreed to tour Pakistan for 3 T20Is and 3 ODIs.
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| Sri Lanka to tour Pakistan in September-October 2019 for 3 T20Is and 3 ODIs Picture Courtesy © Sri Lanka Cricket |
PCB and SLC confirm Sri Lanka Tour Of Pakistan 2019
Sri Lanka Cricket and Pakistan Cricket Board on August 23, confirmed via social media that Sri Lanka will be touring Pakistan this October for 3 ODIs and 3 T20Is. Sri Lankan cricket team will arrive in Pakistan on September 25 and return on October 10.
Earlier this month Sri Lankan cricket board's security delegation visited Pakistan and declared it safe for their team to visit. Earlier the talks were on that Sri Lanka will play two Test Matches in Pakistan as Pakistan has not hosted a single test match in the last decade. But after a week Sri Lanka Cricket announced that they will not play test cricket in Pakistan but they will be touring for 3 T20Is and 3 ODIs.
Sri Lanka's sports minister Harin Fernando said," We are not in position to send the team to Pakistan for two tests. But, we will be their for about eight days to play ODIs and T20Is."
Return of Test Cricket in Pakistan delayed once again
PCB and Pakistani cricket fans have been waiting to see test cricket returning to Pakistan for over 10 years. No test cricket has been played in Pakistan since Sri Lanka Cricket Team's bus was attacked in Pakistan back in 2009.After that unfortunate incident all international teams refused to visit Pakistan. With some great efforts of PCB and Pakistan's security departments, in 2015, Zimbabwe became the 1st international team to visit Pakistan since 2009. As the security situations kept improving in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Indies and then ICC World XI visited Pakistan for limited over series. Pakistan Super League also gradually returned to Pakistan as this year right games were played in Pakistan. A lot of international stars came with their respective franchises and expressed satisfaction over the security arrangement in Pakistan.
With Sri Lanka agreeing to play two test matches in Karachi, hopes of test cricket returning to Pakistan became alive after a decade but, Sri Lanka Cricket delayed it further after refusing to tour Pakistan for Test Matches. However it is still a good news for Pakistani fans that Sri Lanka is coming to play full limited over series. The test matches schedule in October have now been pushed to December. The venue for test cricket will be UAE.
Sri Lanka Tour Of Pakistan 2019 Complete Schedule
ODI Series
27 September
1st ODI, Karachi
29 September
2nd ODI, Karachi
2 October
3rd ODI, Karachi
T20I Series
5 October
1st T20I, Lahore
7 October
2nd T20I, Lahore
9 October
3rd T20I, Lahore
Cricket is Coming Home Gradually but Surely
All the matches, as mentioned above, will be played in two big cities of Pakistan i.e Lahore and Karachi. Most of the people across Pakistan as well as other countries are asking the questions that why other cities like Multan, Faisalabad Rawalpindi etc. are not being considered for the return of information cricket? For those, Pakistan Cricket Board has successfully hosted some international matches in Lahore and Karachi and also some PSL fixtures as well. So at the moment it's good for PCB to host the matches in these places. As the Government of Pakistan and Pakistan cricket board have announced that entire season of PSL 2020 will be hosted in Pakistan. That will pave the way for other international teams as well as International Cricket Council to visit other cities of Pakistan, and that will play a huge role in return of international cricket to Pakistan with full flow.
