Sri Lanka face a rigid international program at home from this month.
Following the tri-nation one-day tournament at home against India and New Zealand, they play three Tests against India which end on September 2nd at the SSC.
Then from September 6-10 they meet Bangladesh in Colombo in their first match of the Asian Test championships, after which there is a short break with a trip to Sharjah thrown-in in November for the tri-nation series against West Indies and Pakistan.
In fact, Sri Lanka have the advantage of playing all their qualifying round matches of the Asian championships at home.
West Indies are due to arrive for their first-ever three-Test series against Sri Lanka in mid-November after which they will participate in a triangular one-day contest with Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe comprising seven matches from December 8-19th. Zimbabwe will stay back after the triangular to play a series of three Tests against Sri Lanka from December 27-January 20, 2002.
Sri Lanka will resume their matches of the Asian Test championships again when they meet Pakistan from January 31-February 4 and India from February 8-12th. Both matches will be played in Colombo.
The final of the Asian Test championships will be played in Dhaka from February 15-19. The dates of the championships are tentative. Thus, Sri Lanka will play at least 90% of their matches in the international calendar between July 18 and February 19, 2002 at home.
The schedule includes 12 Tests (plus one Test in Dhaka, if they qualify) and 12 One-Day Internationals (plus five or six ODI's in Sharjah).
In the meantime, the national squad (sans Aravinda de Silva) left Colombo for Dambulla on Tuesday to prepare themselves for the tri-nation one-day series.
De Silva failed to arrive with the other three national cricketers Sanath Jayasuriya, Marvan Atapattu and Chaminda Vaas after participating in two fund-raising cricket matches at Trent Bridge for the Trent Bridge pavilion on June 30th and July 1st.
Sri Lanka is due to play New Zealand on July 25th and India on July 28th at Dambulla in the second round of matches of the tournament, and the national pool of 26 players will train and play a one-day match there over the next three days, prior to the events.
"We have played just one One-Day International against England at this venue and it is imperative that we familiarise ourselves to the conditions here," said Sri Lanka coach Dav Whatmore.
The tri-series comprises ten matches, of which Sri Lanka will play a maximum of seven, if they qualify to play in the final.
© CricInfo
| Teams | Sri Lanka. |
| Players/Umpires | Marvan Atapattu, Chaminda Vaas, Sanath Jayasuriya, Aravinda De Silva, Dav Whatmore. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Results - Forthcoming Desktop Scoreboard |
|
|
|
||||||
| |||
|
| |||
| |||
| |||
| |||
| |||
| |||
|
