September 11, 2019: Sri Lanka Cricket Board denied Caribbean Premier League (CPL) NOC to its players after they refused to tour Pakistan later this month over security concerns.
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| Sri Lanka Cricket Board denies CPL NOC To The players After They Refused To Tour Pakistan Picture Courtesy © Photo Gallery |
Sri Lanka Cricket Board Denied CPL NOC To The Players
Niroshan Dickwella and Thisara Perera were the first to refuse to tour Pakistan. Instead, they asked from the Sri Lankan Cricket Board (SLCB) to give them No Objection Certificate (NOC) to participate in Caribbean Premier League (CPL) 2019. In a recent players-board meeting, Dimuth Karunaratne, Lasith Malinga Angelo Mathews, Kusal Perera, D De Silva, A Dhananjaya, S Lakmal, D Chandimal followed the footsteps of Niroshan Dickwella and Thisara Perera and opted out of Pakistan tour. Sri Lanka's sports minister Harin Fernando told the players about the security arrangements in Pakistan and made himself available for the tour with the Sri Lankan Team from September 25 to October 9. Despite his best efforts, he couldn't satisfy these ten cricketers to tour Pakistan. After all this scenario, Sri Lanka Cricket Board (SLCB) took a bold step to deny the No Objection Certificate (NOC) for Caribbean Premier League (CPL) 2019 to those players who refused to tour Pakistan.
Did Thisara Perera Prefer Money Over National Duty?
Media is asking the questions from Thisara Perera after his refusal to tour Pakistan. Did he prefer money over national duty? Well, in the current scenario, it looks like this. Thisara Perera is the same guy who toured Pakistan twice during the last decade. He played three T20Is representing ICC World XI in Pakistan in 2017. Thisara also played one-off T20I for Sri Lanka in 2017-18 as well. During ICC World XI tour to Pakistan back in 2017, Thisara Perera stated that he had never seen such security arrangement anywhere in the universe and he would come back and play international cricket in Pakistan. And after a couple of years, the same guy refused to tour Pakistan over security concerns even though the security situations in Pakistan has improved highly since that tour.
India Threatened Sri Lankan Players To Withdraw From Pakistan Tour: Fawad Chaudhry
Pakistan's Information Minister, Fawad Hussain Chaudhry said that the Indian government and BCCI threatened Sri Lankan cricketers to withdraw from Pakistan tour. The current Indo-Pak relations are the weakest point of history. Both countries are on the verge of war, and both are trying to defeat each other diplomatically. Considering that, India has never favoured the return of international cricket to Pakistan. Also, it is believed that the terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team bus was sponsored by Indian intelligence agency RAW. There is a strong possibility that India might have threatened some of the Sri Lankan cricketers to opt-out of the tour. The Indian Premier League (IPL) contracts could be the reason behind all this ugly-drama created by Sri Lankan cricketers. However, the cricket fans have appreciated Sri Lanka Cricket Board's decision to deny No Objection Certificate (NOC) to Sri Lankan players to participate in Caribbean Premier League (CPL) 2019.
