Well news on cricinfo reveals that Sri Lanka is planning to host India for test series involving three matches following the same with a one day triangular series that involves New Zealand as the third team. The feat is likely to take place somewhere in the month of July-August. It has been less that a month after the two and a half month long tournament involving India and Sri Lanka is over. It was on 24th of December last year that the fifth one dayer at Firoz Shah Kotla was abandoned with just 23 overs bowled. That was followed by a tri series involving Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh.
That was the third series, be it bilateral or a triangular series, that involved India and Sri Lanka. There was a bilateral series between India and Sri Lanka in the early 2009s that needless to be said India won 4-1. And in the month of September, there was the Compaq cup that featured New Zealand, Sri Lanka and India once again. One has to think as to why does Sri Lanka always opt for India. It has been almost two years since Sri Lanka has played a full fledged series (that involved test, one day and T20 matches) against Austrlia. Sri Lanka last played a full fledged series against Australia somewhere in 2008 that involved 2 tests followed by the Commonwealth Bank series that too involving India as the third team.
Sri Lanka could have hosted any one of the 7 other teams leaving India and Australia (as mentioned above). One possibility of Sri Lanka inviting India to play the series mentioned above would be that no other team in the world has any time left to consider Sri Lanka's request to tour their nation. But, ICC's schedules for 2010 suggests that during the month of July-August, New Zealand- which Sri Lanka plans to host for the tri series as mentioned, is free of any international commitments. Moreover, there is an Asia cup to be scheduled in the same period that obviously features India & Sri Lanka, the venue yet to be decided.
Recently, news made that India and Sri Lanka, have played 122 matches between each other which is the highest number of matches between any two teams, beating the previous record that was held between Australia and West Indies who have played 120 matches involving each other. So, it looks like Sri Lanka fears that this record might be overtaken by Australia and West Indies who are scheduled to play a 5 match ODI bilateral series next month in Australia. And as far as India is concerned, a nod by them should not be a surprise because, India have always been record hunters.
No comments:
Post a Comment