The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and a member of dailies and weeklies here are raising their voices that the Sri Lanka team should be given the opportunity to play a test series in England.
The commentators in the one-day games and the BBC news casts commented on this favourably. How Sri Lanka has won the world championship in one-day matches, obtained the highest scores in tests and the individual talents of players were highlighted here.
What was brought forward as an excuse for not giving an opportunity in Sri Lanka to play in a series of tests was the paucity of spectators at matches. But the media has pointed out that Lord's was overflowing with spectators to watch the one-day match on Sunday and that over three fourth of the tickets have been already sold for the test between Sri Lanka and England to be played at the end of this month. It is also reported that the week end tickets for the test have been sold out.
Every time Sri Lanka toured England after receiving Test status 17 years ago they were able to play only one test match.
Stephan Brenkey of ``Independent on Sunday'' had written that South Africa, Australia and New Zealand have given the opportunity for Sri Lanka to play tests in those countries and that England should also follow suit and give Sri Lanka an opportunity to play tests in this country to enable Sri Lanka to come up.