Windies to host Sri Lanka for three-Test series in June

Cricket West Indies has announced to host Sri Lanka for a three-Test rubber, in May-June next year.

The opening game will be played from June 6 at the Queen's Park Oval in Port of Spain followed by the second (June 14-18) and third (June 23-27) Tests at Barbados and St. Lucia, respectively.

The islanders will start with a warm-up game from May 30-June 1 at the Brian Lara Cricket Ground here.

This will be Sri Lanka's fourth Test tour of the Caribbean since they became a Test-playing nation in 1981.

They have won one, lost three and drawn two of the six Tests on tour to date, starting with the visit in 1997 under the captaincy of Arjuna Ranatunga soon after winning the ICC Cricket World Cup in 1996.

The Sri Lankans are currently in India for a full series, where the third and final Test is underway with the home side up 1-0. In its most recent fixtures, Sri Lanka was swept 3-0 by India at home before travelling to the United Arab Emirates and sweeping Pakistan 2-0.

The Windies, too, haven't had the best of starts on their ongoing tour of New Zealand, where they went down by an innings and 67 runs in the first Test, but won a Test in England and beat Zimbabwe away recently.

--IANS

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