Pakistan’s renowned businessman Javed Afridi has announced to sponsor Sri Lankan Cricket Team. Afridi made the announcement on Saturday to sponsor the team.
Sri Lanka is facing a tough economic crisis and political instability that has plunged the country into a severe crisis. Last week, the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned.
Shortages of food, fuel, and medicines, along with record inflation and lengthy blackouts, have brought severe hardships to the country’s 22 million people.
Protesters across the Buddhist-majority nation had for weeks demanded the resignation of President Rajapaksa over Sri Lanka’s worst economic crisis since independence in 1948. There had been public anger at the government for bringing Sri Lanka to the brink of economic collapse. Heavily armed troops were still patrolling the streets with a state of emergency still in effect after at least nine people were killed in violence last week.
අපි පකිස්තාන් ජාතිකයන් තරමටම ක්රිකට් ක්රීඩාවේ මිනිසුන් ආදරය කරන නමුත් වර්තමාන තත්ත්වය එතරම් යහපත් නොවීම ලංකා ක්රිකට් ලෝලීන්ගේ වේදනාවට හේතු වන්නට ඇත. ඒ නිසා මම මගේ උපරිම හැකියාවෙන් @OfficialSLC අනුග්රහය දැක්වීමට මගේ පූර්ණ සහයෝගය ලබා දෙනවා. pic.twitter.com/D0HjwXFd1y
— Javed Afridi (@JAfridi10) May 14, 2022
“The people of Sri Lanka love cricket as dearly as we Pakistanis do, but the current not-so-good situation must’ve hurt Lankans cricket fans. So I extend my full support to sponsor Sri Lanka Cricket in the best of my capacities to maintain their international status in the world cricket area,” Afridi wrote in a Twitter message.
Read more: Crisis-hit Sri Lanka set for new govt
Pakistan is expected to tour Sri Lanka this July and August. Pakistan has assured that they will be going ahead with the tour to Sri Lanka.
Pakistan’s Director of Media Sami ul Hassan Burney had also shown support behind the visit. Both the cricket boards have supported each other.
“We have a strong relationship with the Sri Lankan Board, and the two countries have always supported each other in difficult situations.
“SLC, viewing its circumstances, would take a decision which will be accepted, including playing on their grounds or neutral venue,” Burney said in an informal media talk on Saturday.