18 international matches Between India and Sri Lanka within just month isn’t too much for everyone?
Team India’s captain Virat Kohli is clearly not happy with the timing of the Sri Lanka series, which leaves his team with no time whatsoever to prepare for South Africa series. India will their last match against Sri Lanka on December 24 (final T20I) before they fly off to South Africa on December 28, with the first Test starting on January 5.
“Unfortunately we get only two days before we fly to South Africa after this series gets over. So we have no choice but try to be in a game situation and think of what’s coming ahead of us.” While the India skipper did not name the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) directly, his displeasure at the scheduling aims right at the board, which has the final say on how series are finalised.
Indian cricketers have been playing non-stop cricket since start of the IPL, followed by ICC Champions Trophy, away tours of West Indies and Sri Lanka and three successive home series against Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka comprising 23 matches (3 Tests, 11 ODIs and 9 T20 Internationals).
Sri Lanka, meanwhile, also playing no stop cricket since the Champions trophy. They hosted Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and India for the full series. Then played a full overseas series against Pakistan in UAE. and now engaged in another full series against India.
Though, the players can’t do anything, as it is the growing closeness of the two boards is the main reason for this happening.
Sri Lanka has been with the BCCI on ICC policy issues. BCCI lost 2-8 during the ICC Board meeting while opposing the change in governance structure. The only other vote that they got was from Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC).
SLC has been through turbulent times and BCCI has time and again played against them to boost the revenue of the cash- strapped board. Thilanga Sumathipala, the SLC President, is a politician and he knows very well how to gets support from others by offering them the helping hand in their crisis. He did the same with India, when BCCI was in hapless position in the ICC meeting.
As a result, they are playing non stop cricket against each other. Not only Sri Lanka senior team is playing in India, an U19 Sri Lanka team is also here, playing in Challenger Trophy in Mumbai. Even in March next year, India will be playing a tri-nation T20 tournament named ‘Nidhas Trophy’ in Sri Lanka right after the South Africa series!
