Sri Lanka A team to play Duleep Trophy

Sri Lanka will send their A team to take part in India's Duleep Trophy domestic inter-zonal tournament which starts next month. Duleep Mendis, the chief executive of Sri Lanka Cricket, said that the opportunity to participate came after South Africa, who were expected to send a team, pulled out.

The tournament will provide Chandika Hathurusingha with his first assignment as Sri Lanka A coach. Hathurusingha, a former Sri Lankan Test cricketer, took over from Stan Nel on September 1. After the Indian tour, Sri Lanka A are due to tour the Caribbean in December-January and then England in the summer of 2007.

The Duleep Trophy tournament consists of six teams, divided into two pools, which play each other in four-day matches. Five of the competing teams are Indian, while the sixth is an overseas side. Last season a team from Zimbabwe had participated.