Sri Lanka tour in jeopardy

Sri Lanka's recently proposed tour of England next year could be cancelled after several players asked president Mahinda Rajapakse to intervene.

Senior players complain over clash

Sri Lanka's recently proposed tour of England next year is in doubt after several players asked president Mahinda Rajapakse to intervene. The trip, plugging a gap caused by the cancellation of Zimbabwe's tour in April and May, clashes with the second edition of the Indian Premier League in which 13 Sri Lankan players are involved. It is those players, who include skipper Mahela Jayawardene and vice-captain Kumar Sangakkara, who have written to Rajapase, and he has agreed to act on their concerns. "The president promised to look into the players' grievances and instructed the sports minister to ask the interim committee to draw up alternative proposals," Rajapakse's spokesman Lucien Rajakarunanayake said. However, one of the problems the England and Wales Cricket Board would face in re-scheduling Sri Lanka's tour is that the 2009 Twenty20 World Cup, which England are hosting, is due to start on June 5. That leaves little room in the calendar for altering the dates of Sri Lanka's visit especially as England face Australia later in the summer. The IPL will run from April 10 to May 29 next year.