Many of the Sri Lankan players including Lasith Malinga, Niroshan Dickwella, Kusal Perera, Dhananjaya De Silva, Thisara Perera, Akila Dhananjaya, Lasith Malinga, Angelo Mathews, Suranga Lakmal, Dinesh Chandimal and Dimuth Karunaratne shied away from touring Pakistan for the upcoming T20I and ODI series. This surely had not gone down well with their Federal Minster for Science Fawad Chaudhry who had blamed India and said it was the BCCI who pressurized the Sri Lankan players to stay away from the tournament. Now, even Shahid Afridi joins the bandwagon and in an interview said that the BCCI influenced the Lankan players and also blamed the Indian Premier League. Shahid Afridi Calls Virat Kohli a ‘Great Player’ After Indian Batsman Becomes The Highest Run-Scorer in T20Is.

Pakistan’s sports journalist tweeted Afridi’s statement and which read, “Sri Lankan players are under pressure from IPL franchises. I spoke to SL players last time when there was the talk of them coming to Pakistan & playing in PSL. They said they wanted to come, but IPL guys say if you go to Pakistan we won't give you a contract" #PAKvSL". The Sri Lankan players had opted out of the tournament due to security issues.

Another one

As one may recall, the Sri Lankan team was attacked by a group of terrorists in 2009 while they were on their way to the Gadaffi Stadium in Lahore. Six members of the team were wounded and since then no team has travelled to Pakistan for a big series. The Pakistani players have now shifted their home turf to UAE. The 2011 CWC was co-hosted at India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and no matches took places in Pakistan.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 19, 2019 09:36 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).