Sri Lanka women’s side likely to tour Pakistan for three-match ODI series

There are discussions in the Sri Lanka women’s cricket team touring Pakistan for a three-match ODI series. These talks have happened after ECB announced that they have withdrawn from the men’s and women’s tours in October against Pakistan. The board cited the mental and physical well-being of the players to be the reason behind the same.

The Sri Lankan women’s cricket team was last seen in action during the T20 World Cup 2020 in Australia. For the last 18 months, the team hasn’t played any form of competitive cricket. Thus if this series against Pakistan goes forward, it will be good preparation for the side ahead of the Women’s ODI World Cup global qualifier that starts in November. The women’s head coach Hashan Tillakaratne stated that they have been keen on getting the team good practice.

“From October onwards we’re trying to play at least nine games with the Under-17 side boys. We also finished a three-week practice program in Dambulla, which went off very well. So what we’re trying to do is go through the process and give them more challenges in due course,”  Tillakaratne said as reported by ESPNcricinfo.

Now that the window has opened up, and they invited us, we jumped at the idea: Sri Lanka Board CEO

SLC board CEO Ashley de Silva asserted that they have been trying to get a homes series against Pakistan but couldn’t find a probable window to do so. He also highlighted the complications owing to the ongoing pandemic that became a hurdle in the planning.

“There was a time that we wanted to get them [Pakistan] down to Sri Lanka, but due to the fact that we were playing so many tournaments, we couldn’t create so many bubbles at the same time. We were also having problems with the resources; we couldn’t find the necessary amount of doctors to handle so many bubbles.

“So we couldn’t find the resources to handle so many bubbles. But we were on the lookout for a window. Now that the window has opened up, and they invited us, we jumped at the idea,” the CEO said.