England's Test series in Sri Lanka rescheduled to January 2021: SLC CEO

The two sides were slated to lock horns in the longest format of the game from March 19 at Galle International Stadium before the two-match Test series was interrupted due to COVID-19.

Image Credits: Reuters

England's two-match Test series against Sri Lanka, which was scheduled to be held in March but was interrupted due to coronavirus pandemic, has been rescheduled to take place in January 2021.

The two sides were slated to lock horns in the longest format of the game from March 19 at Galle International Stadium. However, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) had decided to call back their players to the United Kingdom following a discussion with its Sri Lankan counterpart due to the worsening of Covid-19 pandemic globally.

Given the fact that the suspension of professional cricket in England has been extended to July 1 and several series and competitions have also been postponed, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) CEO Ashley de Silva has now stated that the series between the two teams will now take place next year in the month of January.

'We are in the process of rescheduling the tours that have been postponed.England has been already rescheduled for the month of January next year but the dates have not been finalised.
At the same time we are also looking at exploring the possibility of rescheduling postponed tours and looking at the windows which are available and alternatives too," Daily Mail quoted De Silva as saying to Daily News.

Besides England tour, Sri Lanka were also scheduled to play three ODIs and as many T20Is against South Africa in June before it was postponed--the dates of which De Silva said
 also needs to be rescheduled.

'South Africa is one of the tours which we are looking at rescheduling. We are engaged in discussions with the member countries and see how it can be planned out," he stated.

'There are also two other tours which are scheduled to take place with India and Bangladesh due to tour Sri Lanka in June-July and July-August respectively.We will explore the possibility of playing those two tours in another week or two," he concluded.

Notably, all the cricketing activities across the globe are either cancelled or postponed due to coronavirus that has affected more than 34,24,000 persons worldwide and claimed the lives of 2,43,000 people.