No impact on Sri Lanka cricketers traveling to England

The recent travel restrictions imposed by United Kingdom on travelers from Sri Lanka due to the current spike in COVID 19 cases in the island, will have no impact on the Sri Lanka cricketers traveling for their six-match limited over series in England, Sri Lanka Cricket official said yesterday.

The national team is scheduled to travel on a charter flight to England on June 8. So far England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has not notified their counterparts in Sri Lanka on any alterations that has to be made with travel arrangements. Sri Lanka will stick to its original travel plans to England besides only making a change of its destination.

England are not welcoming any foreigners or outside contingent from June 7, to a certain period due to the scare of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has largely esca

lated in numbers throughout the globe.

The Sri Lanka squad includes 24 players and the coaching and management staff, leave well in advance to their six-match white ball series which begins from June 23. Sri Lanka will play two tour matches -on June 18 against Kent and on

June 20 against Sussex -- before engaging in three Twenty20s and three ODIs against the Englishmen.

However it is unclear if the new travel restrictions imposed by England may affect Sri Lanka's travel plans, as they will be leaving the island a day after the hosting country enacts its new regulations. Earlier, the Sri Lanka team were set to reach Manchester in a chartered flight, and it is learnt that the destination now has been changed to Birmingham.

The reason for the change of the destination was made in the eleventh hour after Manchester was identified as a 'red zone' for travelers from outside. Birmingham still looks to be a viable destination for the Sri Lankans, who will undergo a mandatory quarantine period of four days, according to English guidelines on the pandemic for overseas visitors reaching the country.