ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry on Tuesday claimed India threatened Sri Lanka players over not being able to play in the Indian Premier League (IPL) if they travelled to Pakistan for their tour later this month.
In a post on Twitter, Chaudhry said, “Informed sports commentators told me that India threatened SL players that they’ll be ousted from IPL if they don’t refuse Pakistan visit.”
“This is really cheap tactic, jingoism from sports to space is something we must condemn, really cheap on the part of Indian sports authorities,” the minister added.
Chaudhry’s tweet comes a day after, 10 Sri Lankan players, including T20 skipper Lasith Malinga and former captains Angelo Mathews and Thisara Perera, pulled out of the upcoming tour of Pakistan citing security concerns.
The Sri Lanka Cricket board said players in a preliminary squad were briefed on security arrangements for the six-match limited over series starting September 27 and given the freedom to decide if they wanted to travel.
Following the briefing, ten players “chose to stay away” from the series of three one-day Internationals (ODIs) and three T20 games.
The other seven who opted out were Niroshan Dickwella, Kusal Perera, Dhananjaya de Silva, Akila Dananjaya, Suranga Lakmal, Dinesh Chandimal, and Dimuth Karunaratne.
The Pakistan-Sri Lanka series starts September 27 and is scheduled to conclude on October 9, 2019.
