Sri Lanka to tour Caribbean after England Test series

Sri Lanka has nine Tests, starting with the series in South Africa, to finish in the top two of the World Test Championship and qualify for a place in the final at Lords. 

• Strap: Tough task to qualify for World Test Championship Final at Lords

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Sri Lanka are poised to tour the Caribbean following their home series against England in January, to play a series of two Tests, three ODIs and three T20Is against the West Indies in February-March 2021. 

The two Test matches will be part of the ICC World Test Championship and the series will be played for the Sobers-Tissera Trophy. Sri Lanka are the current holders of the trophy having won it in the inaugural year in 2015 (2-0) and retained it on their last tour to the Caribbean in 2018 when they drew three Test series 1-1.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in March no international tours have taken place to the Caribbean making Sri Lanka the first country to do so.   

India was the last international team to tour the Caribbean in September 2019. Since then West Indies has been involved in three Test series, all away against Afghanistan in India, in England and in New Zealand. 

West Indies completed a tour of New Zealand this week losing 2-0 in the two Test series which was also part of the World Test Championship.

“We have asked Cricket West Indies to send us their health guidelines and we are awaiting a response. Once we receive the guidelines we will definitely evaluate it and then take a call. We will have further discussions with them on the health part of it,” said Sri Lanka Cricket CEO Ashley de Silva.

With regard to the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Caribbean, De Silva said: “We haven’t got any feedback from them regarding the pandemic and we haven't heard very much about it.”

As per the Global Americans website: “The virus in the Caribbean has not spread in the same fashion as it did in the United States, Italy or the United Kingdom or, for that matter, the major Latin American countries. Among the Caribbean countries, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Haiti have been the hardest hit by the virus. Consequently, most Caribbean countries moved quickly to unilaterally close their borders, introduce quarantine measures, impose social distancing protocols, and worked harder to coordinate regional policies, especially in the procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE). The last was made harder for individual countries due to a traditional reliance on the United States in a time of crisis and the Trump administration’s decision to block distributors from selling PPE overseas due to shortages at home. While Brazil, Mexico, and Peru have struggled to contain a rise in infections and deaths, the Caribbean has done considerably better."

Following the West Indies series, Sri Lanka are due to host Bangladesh in March-April for three Tests, which will be the last series Sri Lanka will play before the World Test Championship final at Lords. The Bangladesh series will be the one postponed from October this year due to a stalemate between the two Cricket Boards over quarantine requirements. 

Currently Sri Lanka, who have completed four of their 13 scheduled Tests in the World Test Championships, are lying sixth in the table with 80 points and a percentage of 0.333. They have one win, two losses and one draw. 

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the ICC decided that the points system in the World Test Championship be amended and the teams ranked in order of percentage of points earned.   

Thus Sri Lanka have a further nine Test matches, starting with the two Test series in South Africa on Boxing Day, to try and raise themselves to the top two of the standings in order to qualify for a place in the World Test Championship Final at Lords.

They have the series at home against England to follow and then West Indies and Bangladesh. It is a tough ask to try and supplant the four teams - Australia, India, New Zealand and England - currently in contention for the top two spots.