Sri Lanka’s tour of Pakistan is scheduled to get underway on September 27. But even before the commencement of the fixtures, the tour has been making quite a bit of headlines. It’ll be the first time since 2009 when the Lankans would be playing a full-fledged series in the war-stricken nation. However, the hosts would be devoid of 10 players, who backed out citing security concerns.

The likes of Lasith Malinga, the T20I skipper, Dimuth Karunaratne, the ODI skipper, former captain Angelo Mathews, and seven others won’t be a part of the series. Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) didn’t comment on the same as it believes that it’s SLC’s internal matter. Last month, the security delegations gave a positive feedback to Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) following which the tour was finalised.

Fawad Hussain accuses India

In the meantime, Fawad Hussain, a Pakistani minister, hurled allegations at India for threatening Sri Lanka. He told India iterated the fact that if the Lankan players tour Pakistan for the bilateral series, then they’ll be barred from taking part in the cash-rich and prestigious Indian Premier League (IPL). He slammed the Indian authorities for cheap tactics and blamed them for jingoism in sports.

Hussain took to Twitter and opined on the matter. “Informed sports commentators told me that India threatened SL players that they’ll be ousted from IPL if they don’t refuse Pak visit, this is a really cheap tactic, jingoism from sports to space is something we must condemn, really cheap on the part of Indian sports authorities.”

Here is Fawad Hussain’s tweet

Informed sports commentators told me that India threatened SL players that they ll be ousted from IPL if they don’t refuse Pak visit, this is really cheap tactic, jingoism from sports to space is something we must condemn, really cheap on the part of Indian sports authorities

— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) September 10, 2019

 

After Hussain brought the serious allegations, Sri Lankan Sports Minister Harin Fernando has opened up. He was clear cut in saying that the reports of India influencing Sri Lanka over the international games are completely baseless. Fernando added that the SLC respected the 10 players’ decision to back out and hopes to beat Pakistan with a full-strength team.

He took to Twitter and wrote, “No truth to reports that India influenced Sri Lankan players not to play in Pakistan. Some decided not to play purely based on 2009 incident. Respecting their decision, we picked players who were willing to travel. We have a full-strength team & we hope to beat Pakistan in Pakistan,”

Here is Harin Fernando’s tweet

No truth to reports that India influenced Sri Lankan players not to play in Pakistan.Some decided not to play purely based on 2009 incident. Respecting their decision we picked players who were willing to travel. We have a full strength team & we hope to beat Pakistan in Pakistan

— Harin Fernando (@fernandoharin) September 10, 2019