Team India was scheduled to tour Sri Lanka in June last year, but the series was postponed due to COVID-19 thus for the Island nation to make up for the loss of revenue, India will be touring Sri Lanka this year said BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal.

“We had to miss Sri Lanka tour last year also. So, we need to work out on that. Since our team that is going to England is primarily for Tests, we could have made up (sic) a team for these white-ball matches. So, that is why we thought we should do our bit to make sure Sri Lankan board and we can play white-ball cricket in time,” Dhumal said.

Due to COVID-19, many series were postponed or called off which not only caused huge losses but also sent the entire Future Tours Programme (FTP) of the top cricketing countries haywire.

4 captaincy contenders for Team India for white-ball Sri Lanka tour

Thus, Dhumal further explained that such tours are crucial in current testing times as they will help all the cricket boards to come out of their financial struggle.

“See, as you know the cricket world is under tremendous pressure for the last one-and-a-half year given this Covid pandemic. A lot of FTP has been cancelled (sic), which has put a lot of strain on these associations all over the world,” Dhumal said.

“Until and unless you do these tours, we can’t make up, and it would be very difficult for all these boards to come out of their financial struggle that they are going through,” he added.

The selection committee will be picking the squad for the white-ball series against Sri Lanka soon after the UK-bound Indian Test squad assembles in Mumbai.

(With IANS inputs)