The West Indies will battle Sri Lanka in two Test matches, three One-Day Internationals and two T20s from next month in Sri Lanka.
The regional team will play the Test matches first, to be followed by the ODIs and then the T20 matches. The first Test of the series will be played from October 14 but the venue is yet to be finalised.
The first Test of any series in Sri Lanka is normally played at Galle and although this is the venue that has been submitted to the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), there is an issue of finance that is catching the attention of the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) and they are yet to make a final decision on the venue.
Sri Lanka Cricket’s interim committee is considering beginning the upcoming Test series in Colombo instead of Galle. With the West Indies tour not generating big revenue for the SLC, chances are the interim committee would prefer playing the two Tests at the P Sara Oval and the SSC or R Premadasa Stadium to cut costs.
It is understood that the TV broadcasting rights, will net the SLC a total of TT$2.1m. This is lower compared to what they got for the other two home series which involved Pakistan TT$2.6M and the Indian series where they got TT$14.1M.
Although the SLC owns the ground at Galle, it still has to pay the Galle Municipality taxes when a Test match is staged there. They have to fork out TT$5800 per day, in addition to other overhead costs.
So it is likely that both Test matches will be played in Colombo in order to cut costs. The first two ODIs will be played in Colombo as well and then the teams will travel to Pallekele for the third and final match.
They then play the first T20 game at Pallekele before going back to Colombo for the final game before leaving for the West Indies.