Karachi, Dec 19 (IANS) Sri Lanka will play a full series in Pakistan in Jan-Feb to fill in for India who called off their tour after failing to get a government clearance.
A senior Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) official said Friday that Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has accepted a PCB invitation to play three Tests, three one-dayers and a Twenty20 game in Pakistan.
Saleem Altaf, the PCB chief operating officer, said Pakistan are thankful to Sri Lanka for agreeing to play the series that will get underway in the third week of January, soon after Sri Lanka concludes their tour of Bangladesh Jan 14.
'It's very important for Pakistan that international cricket resumes here and we are thankful to Sri Lanka that they have accepted our invitation, ' Altaf said.
Pakistan were forced to turn to SLC after India refused to tour the country to play three Tests, five One-day Internationals and a Twenty20 game in the wake of last month's Mumbai terror attacks.
Altaf said both Pakistan and Sri Lanka are working on financial details of the hastily-arranged series.
But it is expected the tour will begin in Karachi with a Twenty20 game followed by the first ODI at the same venue. Lahore will then host the second and third one-dayers followed by the first Test.
Multan will stage the second Test and Karachi will hold the third and last Test.
The PCB was expecting to make almost $25 million dollars from the 'iconic' series against India, but it will now only earn a fraction of it from the series against Sri Lanka.
Altaf, however, said it is too early to calculate the returns from the series against Sri Lanka.
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