Confident England team here for two-month tour

By Shamseer Jaleel

England’s cricketers arrived in the island two days ago for a two-month tour with England’s ardent collection of supporters,the Barmy Army, set to arrive in the country in the coming days. 

Wherever England play they attract a huge contingent of their fans. England last played a full series in Sri Lanka in 2012, taking part in five ODIs, one T20 and three Tests in addition to four warm-up games.

The tour gets underway with two warm-up games at the R.Premadasa Stadium on 5 and 6 October. The first ODI will be played in Dambulla on 10 October followed by the second game on 13 October. Soon afterward two One Day Internationals will be played at Pallekelle (17 and 20 October) before action moves to Colombo for the final leg of the tour in November.

Though Sri Lanka won the last One-Day series 5-2 in 2012, this time around it will be a different story as Sri Lanka’s rankinghas dropped to eighth in contrast to England who are currently at number 1. However, in Test cricket, England are ranked fourth and Sri Lanka sixth, yielding the possibility of a close affair.

England Head Coach Trevor Bayliss and Assistant Coach Paul Farbracehave both previously worked with the Sri Lankan outfit.

The visiting England team were hosted at the British High Commission in Sri Lanka last night.

Pix by Upul Abayasekara

SLC appoints E&Y to conduct special audit

Sri Lanka Cricket said yesterday that Ernst and Young (E&Y) will commence a special audit pertaining to media broadcasting rights and receipts and payments conducted from 2013 to 2018.

The initiative was taken by the SLC following the instructions of Sports Minister Faiszer Musthapa. E&Y will commence the audit process today.