The Pakistan Cricket Board said it would finalise dates for a home series against Sri Lanka tomorrow and also confirmed that the clash with the Indian Premier League was one of the reasons for the delay in preparing the tour itinerary.Sri Lanka Cricket has accepted an invitation from Pakistan to play a one-day series after they complete their tour of West Indies on April 15.But since the tour’s tentative dates clash with the start of the lucrative IPL event in India, both the boards are facing problems finding a logical conclusion. Shafqat Naghmi, a senior official of the PCB, said there were many issues in the finalisation of the Lanka series and the governing body of the board would discuss this at its meeting tomorrow.“We will discuss the Sri Lanka tour dates tomorrow at the meeting. There are many issues in its way and IPL is one of them. But there are other issues as well. We will try to set dates tomorrow,” Naghmi said.“The message from the IPL was loud and clear that they would not like to see the top Pakistani and Sri Lankan players absent from the first part of the tournament,” one well placed source said.Top players like Shoaib Akhtar, Younis Khan, Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Asif, Shoaib Malik, Misbah-ul-Haq, Umar Gul, Sohail Tanvir, Kamran Akmal, Kumara Sangakkara, Muttiah Muralitharan, Mahela Jayawardena, Sanath Jayasuriya have signed on to play for the IPL.The governing body will also discuss an official policy on players who have signed up in the IPL and the rebel Indian Cricket League. An official said the governing body is likely to press for a softening of stance.
