On Sunday, Sri Lanka’s captain Kusal Mendis asked the International Cricket Council to lift the ban on the country because of what he said was political meddling in the local board.
Mendis told media in Colombo, the capital, “This is our job, and we can’t just sit around doing nothing.”
“We want to start practising as there are a few tours to happen next year.”
The ICC said on Friday that Sri Lanka Cricket was “seriously breaching” its duties as a member, pointing out “the need to run its own affairs independently and make sure there is no government interference.”
The ban came a day after Roshan Ranasinghe, Sri Lanka’s sports minister, said the board had stolen millions of dollars and asked parliament to fire it.
Mendis said, “As players, we had no say over that.” “As the captain I only hope for its (the ban’s) removal so that we can resume our game.”
It wasn’t clear right away if the permanent ban would effect Sri Lanka’s plans to host the Under-19 World Cup in January.
After Sri Lanka’s embarrassing loss to India in the World Cup earlier this month, things really got bad with the cricket board, which is the biggest sports group in the bankrupt island country.
Mahinda Halangoda, the team boss, said that Sri Lanka’s players had been told to try to keep things the same.
“The team management had a discussion with the players and asked them to focus on cricket,” he shared.