Asia Cup T20 Cricket – Sri Lanka Cricket Crisis: Sri Lanka Cricket are at loggerheads as they stand to lose the hosting rights for the Asia Cup T20, with question marks also over the series against Australia. Sri Lanka are under great turmoil with an economic crisis rocking the nation, with Cricket Australia and BCCI also raising concerns over the situation. Should the Asia Cup be called off, SL stands to lose a whopping USD 6MN in what could be a staggering loss for the cricket board. Follow Asia Cup T20 Cricket & Cricket News LIVE Updates with InsideSport.IN
Asia Cup T20 Cricket: Australia tour in jeopardy, Sri Lanka all set to lose hosting rights of Asia Cup – Checky Why?
Sri Lanka as a nation are facing a great economic crisis, with the common folk still facing shortages of essentials and fuel. Such has been the turmoil that the country is facing power cuts for 12 hours a day. Despite the hardships, the SLC remains confident of continuing with the Australia tour and the Asia Cup and remains eager to get both running.
SLC are cash-strapped and remains optimistic alongside Cricket Australia, but internally both parties have their concerns. SLC are mulling a change in timings and proposes Day games, to avoid Day-Night Games which could be hampered due to the frequent power shortage.
“At present the tour will go on as planned. We will be looking at the developments in the next couple of days and decide what to do,” Mohan de Silva, the secretary of SLC, told Cricbuzz.
“Whether day or day-night game is up to the host nation. There is no change to the status of the tour. Our head of security confirms that there are no concerns about the tour proceeding as scheduled from either side. The squad will arrive (in Sri Lanka) in June,” a Cricket Australia spokesperson confirmed to Cricbuzz.
Why is SL in danger of losing hosting rights of Asia Cup and Australia tour?
- There is a crisis of food, essentials and fuel in the country due to a financial emergency.
- Even though SLC has its own generators, with fuel shortages, they are not able to guarantee whether a Day/Night clash can go ahead.
- A lengthy tour will need players to be moved around in team busses and the fuel shortage is such that, it could become difficult to even get fuel for busses.
- A final decision will be taken in this regard in the next 48 hours.
- If the series does not go ahead, SLC will lose $1 million in revenue that it could generated even after paying for all services.
- BCCI have also expressed their concerns particularly with the environment of protest
- ACC President Jay Shah is set to take a call on SLC hosting the event, alongside the IPL 2022 Finals.
Asia Cup T20 Cricket: Australia tour in jeopardy, Sri Lanka all set to lose hosting rights of Asia Cup – Checky Why?
Sri Lanka are also slated to host the Asia Cup in August, and BCCI have already made known its concerns amidst the protest climate in the host nation. A senior SLC official earlier quoted that BCCI were keen to move the tournament to UAE, where the last two editions of the IPL and the T20 World Cup were held.
“BCCI has raised concerns about civil unrest in the country and if the tournament is interrupted, we would lose a sum to the tune of US$ six million. However, we indicated that protests around the country against the government have been peaceful. We are keeping our fingers crossed” an Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) official told The Island.
A final decision on the mater is yet to be taken but it is believed that ACC President Jay Shah is likely to confirm the call in-line with the IPL 2022 Finals. Shah has invited SLC Officials to India for the IPL Finals. On the sidelines of IPL 2022 Finals, the final decision on Asia Cup hosts will be taken.
Sri Lanka Cricket post that had identified Colombo and Kandy as the host cities for the event & RPS and Pallekele as the two venues for the event. Sri Lanka had not hosted a multi-nation tournament since hosting the 2012 World T-20.
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