Sri Lankan cricketers to leave IPL on May 5

The Sri Lankan cricketers playing in the 2011 IPL have been asked to report to Colombo by May 5 to prepare for the tour of England. The squad is due to depart for England on May 10 whereas the IPL goes on until May 28.

"For the past two months or so they [the Sri Lankan players] have been playing one-day and T20 cricket and it is time they switched on to playing the longer game," said Duleep Mendis, who replaced Aravinda de Silva as the new chairman of selectors after the World Cup. "The first half of the English summer is not going to be easy and we want the players to report for training and to concentrate on getting used to the change of playing white balls to red."

Eleven Sri Lankan cricketers are involved in the IPL, including Tillakaratne Dilshan, who is likely to lead Sri Lanka in England after Kumar Sangakkara resigned after the World Cup. Dilshan plays for Royal Challengers Bangalore along with fast bowler Nuwan Pradeep.

Former captains Sangakkara (Deccan Chargers) and Mahela Jayawardene (Kochi Tuskers), Suraj Randiv and Nuwan Kulasekara (Chennai Super Kings), Dilhara Fernando and Lasith Mallinga (Mumbai Indians), Angelo Mathews (Pune Warriors) and Muttiah Muralitharan and Thisara Perera (Kochi Tuskers) are the other Sri Lankan players in IPL.

Sri Lanka begin their tour of England on May 14 and play three Tests, five one-day internationals and a Twenty20 international.