India Tour of Sri Lanka: Good news for Sri Lanka Cricket team, ’they are allowed to practice from today’ declares SLC: India Tour of Sri Lanka – India vs Sri Lanka ODI: Happy news has emerged from Sri Lankan camp as their first Team has been permitted to resume their practice sessions from Monday at the R. Premadasa Stadium (Khettarama). The permit came from SLC Medical Advisory Committee headed by Prof. Arjuna de Silva. The entire Sri Lankan first team, including senior players Kusal Perera, Dushmantha Chameera and Dhananjaya de Silva have all returned negative in their latest RT-PCR tests ahead of the limited-overs series against India.
📸 Sri Lanka traning session ahead of limited-overs series 🆚 India.
Match Fixture: https://t.co/cjNptvGU3C#SLvIND pic.twitter.com/l4dzOfp0bn
— Sri Lanka Cricket 🇱🇰 (@OfficialSLC) July 13, 2021
As per Sri Lanka’s Daily FT, SLC Secretary Mohan de Silva said that “They have already started training in the gym at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel but from today (12), they will commence practices at Khettarama.”
India tour of Sri Lanka: Coach and support staff to join players from July 14
India Tour of Sri Lanka – India vs Sri Lanka ODI: The Sri Lankan team, however, will not be trained by the coaches and the support staff, who are still under isolation. The board is taking extra precautions as they were immediate contacts with batting Coach Grant Flower who tested positive upon his return from England.
“They will not be training with the coaches and the support staff because they were immediate contacts with batting Coach Grant Flower who tested positive upon his return from England. The coaches and support staff will be released only on 14 July to join the players at practice. Till then, the players will be on their own but obviously, the coaching staff will be telling them what to do,” SLC Secretary said.
SLC Secretary Prof. de Silva furthered that they are currently undertaking tests more often, while otherwise, they test the players roughly every three to five days as per the protocol. The squad that will commence practice is the one picked for the series against India and comprises the majority of the players who went on the recent tour to England.
Silva reiterated how their batting coach Flower picked up the infection which then transferred to their data analyst.
“Flower has been in contact with some people in the England team, and that’s how he had got it and from him, it went to Niroshan. That is the reason the squad and the coaching staff had to go into isolation and the dates for the start of the Indian series also had to be pushed back. Because of Flower’s infection, we had to postpone a whole tour by a few days, and the tour almost got cancelled. It’s a big responsibility,” said Prof. de Silva.
The SL Secretary reiterated how they are going an extra mile to prevent the breach of bio-bubbles. “Here of course it is very difficult for them to sneak out because Army commandos are guarding them. What happened in England won’t happen here. But I think everyone has learnt their lesson and our players will behave,” Silva said.
SLC took such stringent measures after three Sri Lankan cricketers Kusal Mendis, Niroshan Dickwella and Danushka Gunathilaka broke the bio-bubble protocols during their tour to England.
India Tour of Sri Lanka – New Itinerary for India vs Sri Lanka Series
| India’s tour of Sri Lanka, 2021 – ODI series | |||
| S.No. | Date | Match | Venue |
| 1 | 18th July | 1st ODI | Colombo |
| 2 | 20th July | 2nd ODI | Colombo |
| 3 | 23rd July | 3rd ODI | Colombo |
| India’s tour of Sri Lanka, 2021 – T20I series | |||
| S.No. | Date | Match | Venue |
| 1 | 25th July | 1st T20I | Colombo |
| 2 | 27th July | 2nd T20I | Colombo |
| 3 | 29th July | 3rd T20I | Colombo |
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