Australia's tour of Sri Lanka to go ahead despite Civil Unrest in Island Nation

The Australian men's cricket team will be touring 'Unrest Sri Lanka' in the month of June-July for a full-fledged series. The tour will kick off with the 3-match T20I series followed by the 5-match ODI series, and it will end with 2 Tests, which will be part of the WTC 2021-23 cycle.

Due to the ongoing turmoil in the Island nation, Australia's tour to Sri Lanka has been under scrutiny. However, Cricket Australia (CA) on Thursday cleared their intentions and said that its six-week all-formats tour to Sri Lanka will go ahead despite the ongoing tension in the South Asian Island nation following this week's resignation of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Cricket Australia asserted the same in their statement and said that they are closely monitoring the situation in Sri Lanka. They further added that their players and support staff had been informed and, with three weeks until the squad's departure date, there are no changes to the plan.

"We are keeping a close eye on developments in Sri Lanka and talking regularly with DFAT and Sri Lanka Cricket," said a spokesperson.

"Our players and support staff have been briefed and will continue to be kept up to date. There are three weeks until the scheduled departure of the squad, and at this stage, there are no changes to the schedule."

The matches will be played across three venues – PICS in Kandy, R. Premadasa Cricket Stadium in Colombo, and Galle International Cricket Stadium in Galle. Both Tests are scheduled to be played in Galle from June 29 to July 12. 

Meanwhile, the security chief of Cricket Australia visited Sri Lanka last month when a state of emergency was first declared and gave the green signal to the upcoming tour. Notably, Australia completed its first tour of Pakistan last month, since 1998, under "Presidential-level" security.