Lanka not to play Tests in Pakistan

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka will return to Pakistan after a nearly two-year absence for three short-form cricket games later this year, the sports minister said Thursday.

“We are not in a position to send the team to Pakistan to play the two Tests, but we will be in Pakistan for about eight days to play the ODIs or the T20 matches,” Harin Fernando told reporters in Colombo.

No dates were announced, but the minister said the games would be scheduled for later this year.

Citing safety fears, Fernando said two Tests could instead be played in the United Arab Emirates, where Pakistan has held many of its home series.

International teams have stayed away from Pakistan over security concerns.

In October 2017, Sri Lanka played a T20 match in Lahore for the first time since a terror attack near the same venue in March 2009.

Meanwhile, Sri Lankans involved in gambling firms will be barred from the nation’s cricket governing body as officials bid to eradicate match-fixing scandals that have dogged the sport, the government said Thursday.

Sri Lankan cricket has been mired in corruption scandals in recent years, including claims of match-fixing ahead of a cricket Test against England last year.

Sports Minister Harin Fernando said he was introducing regulations to bring the country in line with International Cricket Council provisions that ban individuals with connections to gambling firms from being involved in the sport’s administration.

“From now on, anyone who is involved in betting or has a close relative involved in betting will not be able to hold office,” Fernando told reporters in Colombo.

The changes appear aimed at the former president of Sri Lanka Cricket, Thilanga Sumathipala, whose family owns a gambling business.

Sumathipala, a controversial businessman and politician, is an executive committee member of Sri Lanka Cricket. He has repeatedly denied involvement in the gambling side of the family business.

Fernando said earlier this year that the ICC considered Sri Lanka one of the world’s most corrupt cricketing nations, adding the sport’s local governance was riddled with graft “from top to bottom”.

In November, former Sri Lankan fast bowler Dilhara Lokuhettige was suspended for corruption linked to a limited-over league in 2017. He was the third Sri Lankan player charged for violating the ICC’s anti-corruption code, following charges levelled against former captain and ex-chief selector Sanath Jayasuriya, and former paceman Nuwan Zoysa.

Jayasuriya was found guilty of failing to cooperate with a match-fixing probe and was banned for two years, while Zoysa was suspended over the match-fixing accusations.