Sri Lanka to tour Pakistan in two legs

Sri Lanka's national cricket team will tour Pakistan in two segments, playing three one-dayers from January 18 and then returning in February for a two-Test series, a top official said Thursday.

Sri Lanka agreed to tour Pakistan after India cancelled a much-anticipated January-February series here due to simmering political tensions between the two countries over the Mumbai attacks.

"Sri Lanka Cricket has agreed to split the tour and they will be arriving on January 18 for three one-day internationals," Pakistan Cricket Board chief operating officer Salim Altaf told AFP.

The three one-dayers will be played in Karachi on January 21, in Lahore on January 24 and in Faisalabad on January 27.

Altaf said the Sri Lankan squad would then return to Pakistan in mid-February for two Tests in Karachi and Lahore.

"The final dates for the Tests will be announced later," Altaf said.

Sri Lanka's tour had come into question after the country's sports minister Gamini Lokuge disbanded the interim national cricket board and sacked its chairman Arjuna Ranatunga.

But Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapakse later gave the green light for the tour, making the team the first to play a Test in Pakistan since South Africa played here in October 2007.

Australia postponed a tour of Pakistan in March last year citing security fears due to a wave of suicide attacks across the country.

That decision left Pakistan without a single Test in 2008. They last played a Test in India in December 2007.