(UTV | COLOMBO) – Sri Lanka’s scheduled cricket tour by India and Bangladesh will be decided by the end of the week, Sri Lanka Cricket CEO Ashley de Silva said yesterday.
“The Cricket Boards of India and Bangladesh wanted time till May 15 to assess the situation and we have given them time till then,” said De Silva. “We will take a collective decision only by that time.”
India are due in June-July for 3 ODIs and 3 T20Is and Bangladesh in July-August for a series of 3 Tests which will be part of the World Test Championship.
Last month Sri Lanka Cricket postponed a tour by South Africa in June for 3 ODIs and 3 T20Is due to the current Covid-19 epidemic and are currently exploring the possibility of rescheduling it for the near future. De Silva said that Sri Lanka Cricket was also looking at doing some planning on how to start the training and other guidelines that need to be followed and where they were going to conduct the program. “The coaches are also in the process of drawing up plans and we are having further discussions on it tomorrow (Tuesday). The date is the thing which we have to take a call,” said De Silva.
SLC EMPLOYEES BACK TO WORK
While the country took its first steps towards normality yesterday by allowing offices and institutions to resume work with limited staff, employees of Sri Lanka Cricket trickled back to work following the near two-month lockdown.
“Most of them have reported to work today. I am also in office,” said De Silva.
“We will bring the staff which is required to come and carry out the day to day operations regularly during the course of this week and the following week.
“It’s only the administrative staff who have reported for work and also the heads of department and the staff they require for them to plan out their operation. There are about 20 people who have turned up for work today. “We have done a roster and we are getting them down on a roster basis we are not getting all the staff at once,” De Silva said.
“Most of them came on their own and those who didn’t have transport we provided them with it. The majority of them are from the Colombo areas.”
During the lockdown De Silva said people who were required have been coming to the SLC office.
De Silva stated that the television rights for the next three years till 2023 would be finalised in about another month.
“We have gone to the market and we have called for expressions of interest. We have also given them time for clarification and to respond to it. We have put a time frame and we have put time lines and we are working on it. Hopefully before June 15 we are trying to finalise it,” said De Silva.
“We will be sharing the information about our FTP by May 15 with the people who have shown interest,” he said.
“The proposals have been closed and we have given them time for clarification based on it so we would be responding to it. It till take about 7-8 days to respond. We will ask them to give a date to submit the bids.”
De Silva however did not disclose the number of people who have shown interest in tying up television rights with Sri Lanka Cricket for the next three years.
“When you disclose the numbers people who have also sent bids will get to know and it will become competitive. Until it is over we don’t want to disclose anything,” De Silva said. (Courtesy – DN)