Mumbai Indians Pacer Lasith Malinga Gets SLC nod to Play Entire Tournament

Malinga has been given the go ahead to play the entire IPL.

In a change of heart, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) have now decided to make pacer Lasith Malinga available for the entirety of the 2019 Indian Premier League (IPL).

The veteran Mumbai Indians pacer had earlier been mandated to participate in the upcoming Super Provincial One-Day Cup by SLC. The tournament, which is tentatively slated to run from April 4 to 11, would have seen Malinga miss as many as six IPL matches for the Mumbai franchise.

After discussions with the BCCI, the Sri Lankan board were reportedly going to Malinga available for Mumbai’s next two IPL fixtures but have now decided to release him for the remainder tournament.

“SLC decided to give permission to Lasith Malinga to play in the ongoing IPL. The management decided to release Malinga from participating in the Super Provincial; since he would get an opportunity to play with much stronger opposition in IPL; which consist of international players,” a statement from the board read.

Malinga, however, still remains keen to captain Galle in the One-Day Cup and is hoping to convince Mumbai Indians to release him for the domestic Sri Lankan tournament.

“I’m very thankful to the board for having released me for the full IPL. But as the captain of the Sri Lanka ODI team, I also think it is important to play the provincial tournament, because I will also be able to see our players in action first hand,” the 35-year-old told ESPNcricinfo.

“I will go to Mumbai and I’ll talk to the management there about getting released to play the provincial tournament.”

Malinga should now be available to play Mumbai’s upcoming fixture against Royal Challegers Bangalore on March 28. His return will come as a boost to Rohit Sharma’s men given that pacer Jasprit Bumrah is likely to miss the clash after bruising his shoulder in the loss to Delhi Capitals.