Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has on Friday, 5th July, announced that the Islanders will host New Zealand for two Tests and three T20 Internationals next month after the ongoing Cricket World Cup 2019.
It will be for the first time when a foreign sporting team will tour Sri Lanka after the Easter Sunday suicide attacks that killed 258 people, including 45 foreign nationals here.
Since the Local Islamic militant hit three churches and three hotels on 21 April, Sri Lanka has been under a state of emergency which gives sweeping powers to police and troops to arrest and detain suspects.
The Test series between New Zealand and Sri Lanka will get underway with the opener on 14 August in Galle while the second and the final Test match will be played from 22 August in Colombo's P. Sara Oval stadium, confirmed by the Sri Lankan board in a statement on Friday.
On the other hand, the T20I series will be starting from 31 August in Colombo followed by the second match on 2 September at the Premadasa Stadium and the final match will be on 6 September in Kandy.
Noteworthy, New Zealand qualified for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 semi-finals on Friday while Sri Lanka was knocked out of the tournament with only three wins in the tournament.
(With AFP Inputs)
