Sri Lanka cricket still hopeful of India series in Aug following June cancellation

New Delhi, June 11:  Sri Lanka cricket (SLC) on Thursday announced that the proposed limited-overs series against India in June stands cancelled in the wake of coronavirus pandemic. But they are still hopeful that the series will be played out in August as the BCCI has promised to honour FTP commitments when normalcy returns.

"The India national team tour of Sri Lanka, which was scheduled to take place during the month of June, 2020 will not go ahead as scheduled," SLC said in a media release on Thursday.

"The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) informed Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) that due to the prevailing circumstances revolving around Covid-19 pandemic, the cricket series, which included three ODIs and three T20I matches will not be feasible."

Even though SLC had requested the BCCI to go ahead with the tour, a board official had told IANS on May 17 that it would be near impossible to tour Sri Lanka in June in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

"I would say it is close to impossible at present. Firstly, we need to take one step at a time in the current scenario and you do realise that some of our players are stuck in Mumbai and Bengaluru -- two zones which are highly affected by the pandemic. Without even going into the question on whether the Indian team would travel without the likes of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma among others, I would say will international travel be permissible? So, we all need to wait and watch how things unfold.

"The BCCI will obviously try to honour all its commitments, if not now, then at a later date which suits both boards involved. But looking at the current scenarios, safety is priority. Also, to get cricketers in the red zone to come out and travel to a green zone is currently not allowed. So, if the government does in the near future allow that, we will have to see what happens from there on and if we can then start domestic cricket. Domestic cricket is the way forward at present," he had explained.