At a time when the Sri Lankan Test side is facing difficulties to cope with the Delhi weather, nine of their ODI squad members were asked not to board an India-bound flight despite reaching the airport as planned.
This though, had nothing to do with the Delhi pollution or the complains by the mask wearing Sri Lankan cricketers at the Feroz Shah Kotla. Sri Lankan sports minister Dayasiri Jayasekara stopped the ODI players from boarding the flight and he had every right to do so.
According to Sri Lanka’s sports law, all Sri Lankan national squads has to get a final approval from the sports minister and the ODI squad did not have Jayasekara’s assent.
"How can I approve a team at such short notice? If you go by the sports law, it requires the list to be sent three weeks prior to leaving," he told the the Daily Mirror separately. "Here, they are sending a team just three to four hours before leaving the country. So I had to recall them.”
Sri Lanka’s new ODI skipper Thisara Perera even spoke to the Jayasekara personally but the minister stood his ground and asked the players to return.
The sports minister however, approved the squad later on after a meeting with Sri Lanka Cricket Board officials and the players are expected to fly to India on Wednesday.
The three-match ODI series begins from Decemeber 10.