F.P. Report
ISLAMABAD: Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has called off the Under-19 series against Pakistan following serial blasts that claimed lives of at least 359 people and wounded more than 500 in Colombo last week.
SCL board wrote an official letter to the PCB, and stated about the uncertain security situation in Sri Lanka for the cricket matches to be played.
The Pakistan team was set to leave for Colombo on April 30, with the first game scheduled for May 3 in Galle. As things stand, the tour has been postponed indefinitely.
Pakistan was scheduled to play two four-day games and three one-day matches. The matches were to be played in Galle and Hambantota.
The PCB, however, had been monitoring the situation, though they kept the doors open for the tour. They didn’t originally take a call out of empathy, and waited for a word from Sri Lanka Cricket on the matter.
“The tour has been postponed indefinitely,” an SLC official stated in his talk to ESPNcricinfo. “It was a decision taken by SLC, as we didn’t want to take any chances.”
The squad led by Rohail Nazir has been in training at a conditioning camp in Karachi over the last five days.
The team’s next assignment is a tour of South Africa in June-July, as part of their build-up to next year’s Under-19 World Cup, also in South Africa. At the previous edition in New Zealand, Pakistan were one of the losing semi-finalists.
