England's tour of SL rescheduled for January, says SLC CEO

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) CEO Ashley de Silva has said that England's Test tour of Sri Lanka which could not be played out in March due to the coronavirus outbreak has been rescheduled to January 2021.

"We are in the process of rescheduling the tours that have been postponed. England has been already rescheduled for the month of January next year but the dates have not been finalised," de Silva told Daily News.

"At the same time, we are also looking at exploring the possibility of rescheduling postponed tours and looking at the windows which are available and alternatives too.

"South Africa is one of the tours which we are looking at rescheduling. We are engaged in discussions with the member countries and see how it can be planned out."

England was playing Sri Lanka President's XI in a 4-day match at the P Sara Oval in Colombo when the coronavirus outbreak saw the decision being made by ECB along with the SLC to postpone the tour.

"Due to the Covid-19 pandemic worsening globally, and after discussions with Sri Lanka Cricket, we have today made the decision to return our players to the UK and postpone the forthcoming Test series between Sri Lanka and England.

"At this time, the physical and mental wellbeing of our players and support teams is paramount. We will now look to bring them home to their families as soon as possible. These are completely unprecedented times, and decisions like this go beyond cricket.

"We would like to thank our colleagues at Sri Lanka Cricket for their outstanding support and assistance throughout this situation. We look forward to returning to Sri Lanka in the very near future to fulfil this important Test series," the ECB had said in a release.