Sangakkara, Vaas and Murali to miss Abu Dhabi series

The three-match one-day international series between Sri Lanka and Pakistan will take place in Abu Dhabi between May 18 and 22. Sri Lanka, however, will be missing Muttiah Muralitharan, Chaminda Vaas and Kumar Sangakkara who have county commitments in England.

K Mathivanan, the Sri Lanka Cricket secretary, said he had received confirmation that the series would be played from May 18-22 and that Sri Lanka would receive US$ 750,000 as participation fees from the Abu Dhabi Cricket Council (ADCC) who have organised the matches. He said Sri Lanka would leave for Abu Dhabi on May 15 and the matches would take place on May 18, 20 and 22.

The series was originally slated to begin on May 9 but Sri Lanka sought a postponement after they qualified for the World Cup final against Australia and were later stranded in London without a connecting flight to Colombo following the cancellation of flights to the capital due to air raids conducted by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The team eventually arrived in Colombo on May 3.