Bad weather turning out to be a spoil sport

Bad weather which forced the opening one-day match of Tamil Nadu's short cricket tour of Sri Lanka to be cancelled at the R. Premadasa Stadium on Thursday, is threatening to spoil the entire series scheduled against the Colombo District CA.

The weather showed no improvement from what it was in the past few days, and the Colombo DCA were to meet later today (Thursday) to decide on the fate of the two remaining one-day matches scheduled at the R. Premadasa Stadium for Friday and Saturday.

If these matches are also cancelled, the eight Sri Lanka cricketers who were picked to play in the first two games will be deprived of valuable match practice ahead of the ICC knockout competition in Kenya for which they are due to leave for on September 26.

The eight players who were picked to play against Tamil Nadu were national team vice-captain Marvan Atapattu, Mahela Jayawardene, Russel Arnold, Romesh Kaluwitharana, Kumar Sangakkara, Upul Chandana, Erik Upashantha and Avishka Gunawardana.

The Tamil Nadu cricketers led by Ashish Kapoor arrived on Tuesday, but so far they have been confined to practice at the NCC indoor nets because of adverse weather conditions experienced in the country.

Their key match of the tour is the 4-day Gopalan trophy against the Colombo DCA starting at the SSC grounds on Monday. Indian all-rounder Robin Singh is expected to arrive on Thursday to lead the state side in this vital game. The Colombo DCA team is led by former Sri Lanka Test batsman Hashan Tillakaratne.