IMF and Foreign Debt

Sri Lanka entered into negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as it was unable to repay  around $ 7 billion in foreign debt due in the year 2022. The country’s total foreign debt exceeds $ 51 billion of which $ 28 billion has to be repaid by the year 2027.

Security versus Dollars

Courtesy BBC

As a consequence of food and fuel scarcity riots erupted in Colombo and the Presidential Palace was swarmed. Despite an acute shortage of essentials such as fuel, medicine and grains no protester or political party opposed cricket being played in the capitol and port city of Colombo amid depleted foreign currency reserves and severe security concerns for the Australian and Pakistani teams. The prevailing view was that cricket is essential as the Australian tour generates millions of dollars for Sri Lanka’s Cricket  Board including tourists flocking to the island country where traditionally tourism has been a significant source of revenue .

Cricket Dollars Flow to UAE

Rather then shifting the venue of cricket tourism to UAE , a non cricket playing nation, the Sri Lankan authorities assured visiting teams that playing cricket was safe to ensure inflow of  sports related foreign currency which bolstered its foreign currency reserves. It capitalised on the traditional rivalry between India and Pakistan to maintain interest in its domestic sports  sector and acquire telecasting rights to beam cricket events worldwide

Ethical considerations

In the perspective of a UN children agency report that nearly one third of children in Sri Lanka were suffering from some form of malnutrition in the ongoing economic downslide the Australian Cricket squad had ethical concerns about playing cricket in the country