Strong cricket team will tour Pakistan to play T20 International – Dayasiri

Sri Lanka Cricket would send a strong team to Lahore shortly, to play a T20 International match against Pakistan, due to the security situation having improved in that country, Sports Minister Dayasiri Jayaskera said yesterday.

Answering questions at the Weekly Cabinet press briefing in Colombo, the Minister revealed that a report received from the International Cricket Council states that conditions in Pakistan were now more conducive for foreign teams to play cricket in that country.

He said that Pakistan was a nation that had sent its cricket teams to play in Colombo, during the height of the war against the LTTE, when many cricket playing countries had refused to come here.

“Pakistan also helped us in other ways during the war. So we have a duty to support them now,” Jayasekera pointed out adding that a strong team would be sent to Lahore leaving out the players who had refused to go there.

Sri Lanka has not toured Pakistan, since a bus carrying its cricketers was fired upon by 12 gunmen near the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore on March 3, 2009. Six members of the team were injured and six Pakistani policemen and two civilians were killed due to the attack.