Australia’s tour to give Sri Lanka Cricket a financial boost

The Australian cricket team is touring Sri Lanka for a full cricket series that might give the nation a boost amid the financial crisis.

Sri Lanka Cricket on Monday said all income from tickets for the three T20Is, five ODIs and two Tests would be donated to public welfare initiatives.

“These are tough times for our people,” Sri Lanka Cricket secretary Mohan de Silva told reporters in Colombo. “We are indeed grateful to Cricket Australia and the Australian government for supporting this series despite the hardships we as a nation are facing.”

The island nation is experiencing its worst economic crisis since independence in 1948, barreling toward bankruptcy and saddled with foreign debt so big that it has no money left for basic imports. Sri Lankans are struggling to access the bare necessities like food, fuel, medicine and cooking gas.

Sri Lanka Cricket has already donated $2 million to the health sector to buy essential medicines.

Cricket in Sri Lanka was played mostly in empty stadiums for two years during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, although a 50% capacity crowd was allowed in for the test series against the West Indies in Galle last December.

The series will get started Tuesday with a T20 match at Colombo’s R. Premadasa Stadium, and will be the first time Sri Lankan fans are allowed into venues for limited-overs matches since the pandemic started.

Tickets went on sale Saturday and within five hours the T20s on Tuesday and Wednesday were sold out.