BCCI officials to visit Sri Lanka

Senior Indian board (BCCI) officials will reach Colombo on January 13 to discuss and possibly finalise a short Indian tour of Sri Lanka next month.

The Indian delegation will be headed by BCCI secretary N srinivasan, who will also meet Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse and the sports minister Gamini Lokuge. The tour, to be held between January 27-February 14, will comprise of five or seven ODIs and a Twenty20, sources inside the sports ministry told Cricinfo.

India are still awaiting a reply from New Zealand Cricket on a request for adding an extra Test to the original two-Test tour schedule. The BCCI had asked NZC to accommodate an extra Test for the series starting on March 6 - two Tests, five ODIs, one Twenty20 - after the Indian government refused to clear the Indian team's tour to Pakistan.

The matches in Sri Lanka are to be held after the national team returns from a series of three ODIs in Pakistan as part of the first leg of a two-part tour. The second leg of two Tests will commence after the Indian series.

The Pakistan Cricket Board invited Sri Lanka to fill the gap vacated by India, who pulled out of a scheduled tour in January-February in the wake of the Mumbai terrorist strikes. The tour was accepted by Arjuna Ranatunga, who has since been sacked from his position as interim SCLchairman.

Ties between the Sri Lankan and Indian cricket boards became strained following Ranatunga's aggressive stance against the IPL. Senior BCCI officials subsequently made it known to their Sri Lankan counterparts that bilateral ties would improve only of Ranatunga was removed.

Lokuge has assured BCCI officials that Ranatunga would not be reappointed as SLC chairman again. "I have removed Arjuna Ranatunga as a chairman of the interim committee and he is not likely to be at the helm again"," he said. "We are not discussing that issue now. We are yet to decide about Ranatunga's successor."