Sri Lankan team flight diverted to India after pilots note fuel loss

Sri Lanka’s recently concluded tour of England wasn’t pleasant by any means for the visitors as they failed to win a single match. While the Three Lions whitewashed them 3-0 in the T20I series, the ODI series saw the home team registering a 2-0 win with one game being washed out. However, Sri Lanka’s trouble didn’t end even end after the conclusion of the final match.

Seven England members, including support staff, tested positive for COVID-19 after the third and last ODI in Bristol. This meant the Sri Lankan players could also have been infected. Subsequently, all squad members underwent coronavirus tests upon their arrival in Colombo and were awaiting the outcome on Tuesday night. In the middle of this episode, an interesting story has come to the fore.

We had to divert to India because we lost fuel: Mickey Arthur

Sri Lanka head coach Mickey Arthur revealed that the return flight to Sri Lanka suffered fuel loss and the team had to land in India.

“We had to divert to India because we lost fuel,” Mickey Arthur, Sri Lanka’s head coach. When I landed in India, I switched my phone on and I had a couple of messages from Wayne Bentley [England’s operations manager] who updated on the situation and that was a really nerve-wracking time for all of us,” Arthur told talkSPORT.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s next assignment is a limited-overs series against India at home. The tour comprises three ODIs and as many T20Is, starting from July 13. With the Men in Blue doing exceptionally well in white, the Lankan Lions would want their best player to be available for the series. Although Sri Lanka couldn’t do much on the England tour, Arthur highlighted some positive takeaways.

“I thought Kusal Janith [Perera] led the team very, very well in very trying times and I thought our quick bowling attack was fairly good which was great. We know we’ve got the spinners but to see some of our quicks come through was really, really exciting.”

Meanwhile, the England cricket team has announced an alternative squad for their upcoming ODI series against Pakistan. All-rounder Ben Stokes will marshal the troop in Eoin Morgan’s absence and it would be interesting to see how this series unfolds.