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Sri Lankan plan fuels Test fears
13.10.08
England's threatened Test series against Sri Lanka will be high on the agenda in Dubai this week following an outspoken attack from International Cricket Council president David Morgan.
None of the leading Sri Lankan players is likely to be available for next May's tour if agreement is made on a £40million deal that would see them committed to the Indian Premier League long term.
Without Muttiah Muralitharan, Mahela Jayawardene and 11 more top Sri Lanka players, Tests planned for Lord's and Chester-le-Street would be cancelled. And the idea of Twenty20 cricket emerging as an unstoppable force will spread alarm.
Morgan, the former ECB chairman who now heads the world game, said the IPL proposal for the release of Sri Lanka's players is "quite unacceptable behaviour against the background of Sri Lanka's signed agreement with the ECB".
He also claimed that the "primacy of Test cricket" was unanimously reaffirmed by all ICC full members at a meeting last month.
The second IPL tournament will run from 10 April until the end of May, and many believe the event is trying to buy itself a window every year during which no meaningful world cricket will take place.
