Australia to play three Tests, five ODIs in Sri Lanka

Australia will play three Tests, five ODIs and two Twenty20 internationals when they tour Sri Lanka in August and September this year, the Sri Lanka board has announced.

While the established centres at Galle and the Sinhalese Sports Club, Colombo, are set to host a Test each, Pallekele - situated just outside Kandy - has been awarded the second Test. Pallekele International Stadium, situated which was constructed in the build up to the World Cup, has hosted just one Test previously, when Sri Lanka took on West Indies in December 2010, but that game was badly affected by rain and ended without a single innings being completed.

Pallekele will also host both T20 games and one ODI, while Sri Lanka's other new stadium, Hambantota gets two ODIs. Hambantota was also built for the World Cup and hosted two games. However, the cost of constructing the stadiums left Sri Lanka Cricket in debt to the tune of $23 million, with the result that the board pledged the newly built stadiums plus the income from upcoming tours as collateral to raise funds to pay for the World Cup.