Cricket rained out in Colombo

COLOMBO: The first ball in the Unitech Cup is yet to be bowled. With South Africa pulling out on Wednesday evening, the tri-series has now become an India versus Sri Lanka affair.

On Wednesday, the match between India and Sri Lanka was called off without a ball being bowled, thanks to the heavy rain. After South Africa’s pull-out, it was announced that the first of the three games between the two countries will now be played on Friday followed by matches on August 20 and 22.

Umpires Billy Bowden and Tiron Vijaywardene inspected the conditions twice before arriving at the call-off decision. They have said the outfield was too slippery for comfort.

They are hoping a truncated, if not a full 50/50 game on Friday.

The Indian team, in fact, did not move out of the hotel on Wednesday. Captain Rahul Dravid, coach Greg Chappell and manager Sanjay Jagdale went to the stadium. From the Lankan side, coach Tom Moody was there along with manager Robert Tissera. The tournament was scheduled to start on Monday but it could not due to a bomb blast.