Sri Lanka Cricket’s plans of resuming national team training have been pushed to June as per the new health guidelines issued by the Ministry of Sports together with the Ministry of Health.
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SLC were hoping to restart their training by conducting ‘bio-secure’ residential training camps from the 15th of May. Therefore, they officially requested permission from the relevant authorities last week with the intention of starting training from this Friday.
However, the health authorities through the Ministry of Sports officials have advised the main three sports in the country, Cricket, Rugby and Football to commence their training from the 1st of June.
Nonetheless, before the 20th of May, SLC will need to formally inform the Sports and Healthy Ministries on all the precautions they’ve put in place against the threat of Covid-19 and seek their permission if they want to start training by the first week of next month.
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“We’ve had constant dialogue with Ashley De Silva, Sri Lanka Cricket Chief Executive Officer and Dr. Daminda Attanayake, our Chief Medical Officer. She’s been keeping us updated with what’s been going on. We’re hoping to get our players back in training, hopefully by 1st of June. That’s the target we’ve set, to get our boys back in the training ground.” Sri Lanka Head Coach Mickey Arthur told ThePapare.com on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, 12th May, SLC held a physical discussion at their headquarters in Colombo with the health authorities, coaching staff and the two captain’s, Dimuth Karunaratne (ODI & Test) and Lasith Malinga (T20I) to brief everyone on the current situation.
As reported by ThePapare.com last week, all the players and coaching staff will go through a mandatory PCR testing before the residential camp begins. At all times, the social distancing guidelines and protocols issued by the Ministry of Health will have to be observed by all participants in the residential camp.
The first crop of players set to attend the two-week residential training camp would be the fast-bowlers, Lahiru Kumara, Suranga Lakmal, Nuwan Pradeep, Kasun Rajitha, Vishwa Fernando and Isuru Udana along with the all-rounders, Wanindu Hasaranga and Dasun Shanaka.
“The [fast] bowlers are paramount because we got to get them back to speed and get them physically ready to go again. We’ll have an emphasis on the bowlers [first] but we’re trying to get all the players as soon as we can. “ Arthur further stated.
For the past eight weeks, all the national players have been remained indoors albeit they’ve been doing physical fitness as per the instructions given by the SLC support staff. Some of the players such as Kusal Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Dilruwan Perera and Niroshan Dickwella, have already started batting individually in the indoor facilities in areas where the curfew restrictions have been lifted.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, international cricket has been halted since March with Sri Lanka already postponing two inbound tours against England (March) and South Africa (June).
Read Also : ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier in Sri Lanka postponed
The fate of the upcoming India limited-overs series and Bangladesh Test series at home will be decided at the end of the week. However, the chances of the Indians & Bangladeshis arriving in June & July remain highly unlikely. On Tuesday, 12th May, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced that the ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifiers, which was to be held from July 3-19 in Sri Lanka, has been postponed owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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