England will continue their tour of Sri Lanka as planned but the cricketers have been asked to be careful amid the political crisis prevailing in the island nation, a team spokesman said on Monday.
Sri Lanka was plunged into the crisis on Friday when president Maithripala Sirisena sacked Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and swore in ex-president Mahinda Rajapaksa to replace him, breaking up a fragile coalition governing the island.
England, who have won both the one-day and Twenty20 series against Sri Lanka, play a two-day practice match in Colombo before heading to Galle which hosts the first of the three test matches from November 6.
England are set to face a Sri Lanka Board XI including sacked limited-overs captain Angelo Mathews when they begin their Test preparations on Tuesday https://t.co/OfEg36bH86 pic.twitter.com/4QIRdRiX8M
— Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) October 29, 2018
"We are aware of the developments and are in constant contact with the British High Commission," Danny Rueben, a spokesman for the England cricket team, told Reuters.
"We are exercising vigilance and avoiding all demonstrations or large political gatherings.
"The test squad is preparing for the first test and have warm-up matches this week in Colombo. These matches will continue as advertised starting tomorrow from 10 am"
Test Mode: ?
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) October 29, 2018
The boys are training ahead of our first red-ball warm-up match in Sri Lanka. pic.twitter.com/zgKj96XtFl
Prasanna Rodrigo, the media manager at Sri Lanka Cricket said there is no change in the security given to the English team.
"Security that was given from the start of the series will be continued," Rodrigo told Reuters.
England will play the second test in Kandy from November 14 and the third in Colombo from November 23.
