Eight Sri Lankan players set to return home from Pak due to safety concerns
Colombo (PTI): Eight Sri Lankan players, currently touring Pakistan with the national team for a three-match ODI series, are set to return home on Thursday after expressing concern over their safety following a deadly bomb blast in Islamabad that left 12 people dead and several injured, a SLC source said on Wednesday.
The development means the second ODI scheduled in Rawalpindi on Thursday will not happen. Pakistan had won the first ODI by six runs at the same venue on Tuesday.
The Sri Lankan team is also scheduled to play a triangular series, involving the hosts and Zimbabwe, after the three ODIs.
Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) sources said replacements will be sent for those returning home.
Sources in SLC added that because of the proximity of Rawalpindi, where the ODIs are being played, to Islamabad was the reason the players expressed the desire to return home.
In 2009, the Sri Lankan cricket team bus was attacked by gunmen when it was on its way to the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore for the second Test.
Several members of the Sri Lankan team, including Ajantha Mendis, Chaminda Vaas and captain Mahela Jayawardene, were injured while many Pakistani security personnel were killed.
Following the deadly attack, all foreign teams refrained from visiting Pakistan for over a decade and the country was compelled to use offshore venues in the Middle East to host its home matches.
Coincidentally it was Sri Lanka's tour of Pakistan in December 2019 which signalled the return of international cricket to the country.
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Airstrike on Iran's capital appears to hit former US Embassy compound
Dubai (AP): An airstrike in Iran's capital, Tehran, on Wednesday morning appears to have struck inside the former US Embassy compound.
The embassy has been controlled by Iran's Revolutionary Guard since the 1979 hostage crisis. Its all-volunteer Basij force operates the compound, running an anti-American museum inside the embassy and other in new buildings on its grounds.
Witnesses saw blown-out windows surrounding the massive compound on Tehran's Taleghani Street. However, there was no missile strike visible around the compound, with witnesses saying they believe the strike happened inside the compound.
The 444-day hostage crisis saw American diplomats held until President Ronald Reagan took office from President Jimmy Carter in 1981.
