Sri Lanka Cricket is planning to conduct Sri Lanka ‘A and Australia ‘A’ cricket series concurrently with Sri Lanka- Australia National cricket series from next June and its confirmed by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) Chief Executive officer (CEO) Ashely de Silva yesterday.

Australia’s National men’s cricket team will arrive in Sri Lanka to play all format cricket series which will work off from June 7 to July 12 while in this same period we have made arrangements to conduct Sri Lanka ‘A’ and Australia ‘A’ cricket series here. Sri Lanka ‘A’ cricket series itinerary has already finalized and it will announce very soon, said CEO Ashley de Silva.

Earlier SLC has released their National cricket itinerary of the series against Australia. SLC CEO Ashley de Silva further said “We are in for some exciting cricket, especially considering that an Australian tour to Sri Lanka is taking place after five years, since last time they toured Sri Lanka. In addition our plan is to give more exposure for the Sri Lanka ‘A’ team to play with Australia ‘A’ team in this same period. Especially SLC is more focused about Sri Lanka ‘A and emerging teams to mould good replacements for the National team, In fact due to Global Pandemic the cricket series among the International teams were not possible but with that difficulties SLC has successfully conducted National cricket series and made all arrangements to play overseas tours. In addition Lanka Premier League (LPL) and domestic major tournaments such as National Super League and Emerging clubs 3 day cricket tournament all conducted by the SLC. Especially SLC has appointed new coaching staff for the Sri Lanka ‘A, Emerging Team and Sri Lanka Under 19 teams while they also focused on National women’s team which is ready to tour Pakistan.

We are ready to conduct the Asia Cup cricket tournament as well as the Australia and Pakistan cricket series and have already concluded a successful discussion with Asian Cricket Council (ACC) officials and other respective countries cricket boards and hope to conduct these cricket series. SLC top officials are expected to meet ACC and Indian top officials during the IPL final and they have already invited us to join with discussion, said SLC CEO Ashley de Silva.

Sri Lanka National cricket team is ready to depart Bangladesh on May 8 for the two Test cricket series which will commence from May 15 while Emerging team already in England for their cricket series which will commence tomorrow (6) with the three four day match series. Meanwhile SLC plan to conduct Inter club T-20 cricket tournament from May 22 and has a busy schedule ahead with both local and International matches. SLC is confident to conduct all these cricket series and make overseas tours despite this difficult situations and especially Asian Cup cricket tournament in August will be our top priority as it will be a good investment for Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile National Selection Committee Chairman Promodya Wickramasinghe said the Selection Committee is planning to finalize the Sri Lanka preliminary 25 member squad for the Australia ‘A’ cricket series before next 2-3 days. The Chairman of the selectors is expected to join with the National team for the Bangladesh tour and before this they have made arrangements to select the Sri Lanka ‘A’ squad. The local cricketers are presently involved with the MCA Super League cricket tournament. The performances of the Emerging cricket team in England and MCA Super Premier League cricket also considered for the selections.

We wanted to make a full strength National side and more focus on the forthcoming T-20 World Cup in Australia which is scheduled to be held from October 16 to November 13. The selectors always give more priority for the fitness tests addition to the players’ current form. Newly elected National coach Chirs Silverwood is also very keen on players fitness and our aim is to win both Test matches in Bangladesh first which is the part of the ICC Test championship. SLC yesterday officially released National Test team for the Bangladesh tour which captained by Dimuth Karunaratne. The players have good chance to compete with strong teams like Australia and Pakistan this year which all give more exposures for them. We have not decided to change ODI captaincy and give that post to Dimuth Karunaratne once again said chairman of the National selection committee.