Sri Lanka concerned for their safety on England tour after far-right riots

Sri Lanka’s cricketers have expressed concerns about their safety at the start of their Test tour of England following the far-right riots across the country.

An advanced party of seven Sri Lanka players and two support staff have arrived in the country ahead of their three-Test series, which begins at Old Trafford a week on Wednesday. The full squad will arrive on Sunday, and they have a four-day tour match scheduled against England Lions from Wednesday.

The tour – and with it the England and Wales Cricket Board’s full security provision – officially begins on Sunday. Players on the training camp have asked Sri Lanka Cricket to up the security measures before Sunday, due to anxiety over the threat of violence amid the riots. The group is training near London.

“Most of the issues seem not to be close to where we are but everyone is still a little concerned,” one player told ESPNcricinfo. “We can’t really go out to dinner or do anything like that. Mostly we stay in the hotel. No one wants to run into trouble and get beaten up.

”We’ve asked the board to try and ask for some security for us until the main team arrives, but we haven’t heard anything back yet.”

Sri Lanka’s team manager Mahinda Halangoda told ESPNcricinfo that he had raised concerns about security in Manchester for the first Test, having seen news reports about unrest there. He said “the ECB responded very quickly and sent us their comprehensive security arrangements”.

The ECB is understood to be confident in the plans and remain in dialogue with Sri Lanka Cricket over the possibility of changing them.

A series of far-right riots have taken place since the murder of three young children in Southport early last week. In recent days, anti-racist counter-protests have begun in response.

Sri Lanka named an 18-man squad for the tour this week, including the uncapped right-arm seamer Milan Rathnayake and fast-bowling all-rounder Nisala Tharaka. Sri Lanka will be captained by Dhananjaya de Silva, with experience provided by Dimuth Karunaratne, Angelo Mathews and Kusal Mendis. The head coach is Sanath Jayasuriya, supported by the former England batsman Ian Bell, who has been brought in to help a team that has not played Test cricket in this country since 2016 manage local conditions.

England Lions are due to announce their squad to face Sri Lanka on Friday.