SA may suffer as India mulls tri-series against Sri Lanka, Pakistan

The Board of Control for Cricket in India could explore the possibility of hosting an ODI tri-series involving Pakistan and Sri Lanka later this year and the modalities are likely to be discussed during the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) meeting in Chennai, on Saturday.

The officials from the three boards will be present at the meeting and there is a strong chance that the BCCI might propose to have a tri-series sometime in December in India.

Pakistan Cricket Board chief operating officer Subhan Ahmed and Sri Lanka Cricket secretary Nishantha Ranatunga and CEO of ACC Syed Ashraful Haq will be present at the meeting.

The ACC is headed by BCCI's president-in-exile N Srinivasan.

The ACC meet assumes significance as it has been scheduled just two days before the proposed meeting between Cricket South Africa chief Haroon Lorgat and BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel in Dubai on the sidelines of an ICC board meeting to resolve the impasse over India's tour of South Africa.

The BCCI is presently in disagreement with Cricket South Africa over the number of matches to be played in the series in November-December. India will play a short series against the West Indies in November and New Zealand tour will start from January 19.

If the tri-series takes place in between these two tours, then the South African board would be left with no other option but to host India for two Tests, three ODIs and a Twenty20

international from December and ending with the New Year's Test.

The tri-series would lead to rescheduling of Pakistan's home series against Sri Lanka in the UAE in December-January. Sri Lanka and Pakistan are set to play two T20 internationals, five ODIs and three Tests from December 11 to January 20. The limited-overs series concludes on December 27.

The PCB wouldn't mind such series involving India and Sri Lanka as it would generate a huge amount of advertisement revenues and benefit all three boards.

It has been reliably learnt that Ahmad will hold discussions with the BCCI officials on the issue during the meeting.