PAK vs SL | Satisfied with Pakistan's security arrangements, says Dasun Shanaka

09/24/2019

Despite all the worry circling the security concerns in Pakistan, a second-string Sri Lankan Pakistan left for the upcoming tour to the South Asian country, on Tuesday. Dasun Shanaka, captain of the T20Is, said that he has played in Pakistan before and he's happy with the security arrangements.

After a series of events unfolding ahead of Sri Lanka's tour of Pakistan for six limited-overs fixtures, the schedule is being materialized as was planned earlier. Most recently, Sri Lanka's defence ministry gave a go-ahead to the cricket board to send the squad to Pakistan after they found the security promises being fulfilled by the hosts. There were reports that the team could be targeted by militants that had worried the Sri Lankan government. Even the ICC had its own round of investigation before appointing match officials for the series.

The Sri Lanka team was attacked in Lahore in 2009, the impact of which is still fresh after a decade and teams are still reluctant to tour Pakistan. In fact, the Sri Lanka Cricket board is sending a reduced team as 10 major players opted out of the series citing security reasons, which again gave way to a round of controversies.

However, Sri Lanka's captain of the Twenty20 squad, Dasun Shanaka, said on Tuesday he had no such concerns at all, having played a T20I fixture in Lahore in October 2017.

"I have been there before," Shanaka was quoted saying by TOI.

"I am satisfied with the security arranged for us and I am happy to lead my team to Pakistan. We hope to give a good fight to our very strong hosts."

In fact, even the selected ODI skipper Lahiru Thirimanne said he also had no concerns and they had been given assurances of a very high degree of protection in Pakistan, usually reserved for visits by heads of state.

The three one-day internationals and three Twenty20 matches will begin on Friday, September 27.