India to play extra games in Sri Lanka to ease losses

Friday, 21 May 2021 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Indian cricket team Captain Virat Kohli with teammates during a training session – PTI Photo

AFP: India have agreed to play more games on a tour of Sri Lanka in July to help overcome the national board’s financial losses from the coronavirus, a top official said on Thursday.

Sri Lanka will also ask other visiting teams to play extra games to boost television revenues, said Shammi Silva, who was re-elected as Sri Lanka Cricket president on Thursday.

India were to play three Twenty20 internationals in Sri Lanka but have added three one-day internationals.

“India agreed to double the number of matches in their upcoming tour and this means we will get more revenue from television rights,” Silva told reporters.

He did not say how much the board had lost from tours cancelled last year but said similar requests to play more matches will be made to other teams.

Sri Lanka are scheduled to host South Africa in August, Scotland in September and Afghanistan in November. England pulled out of a series in March last year but returned to the island in December to play two Tests without spectators at Galle.

Sri Lanka are currently in Bangladesh to play three one-day internationals.

The country has been battered by a new wave of the pandemic that has hit South Asia. It has banned airline passengers from entering until the end of May in a bid to contain a surge in infections.