BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC):

THE THREE-day tour match between West Indies A and Sri Lanka, scheduled to begin today, has been cancelled, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) announced yesterday.

The match had been scheduled for Shaw Park in Tobago from March 29 to 31, but the WICB cited airline issues as the reason behind the cancellation.

"The planned tour match has been cancelled because of flight problems," a short WICB release said. "The WICB apologises for any inconveniences caused. Sri Lanka will use the opportunity to do net practice at Shaw Park."

Disappointing

The fixture was expected to help Sri Lanka fine-tune preparations for the second Test, starting on April 3 at Queen's Park Oval in Trinidad.

It will be a disappointing turn of events for Sri Lanka as the match was the only other scheduled tour match.

They lead the series 1-0 after scoring a 121-run victory in the opening Test which finished on Wednesday at the National Stadium at Providence in Guyana.

Following the Trinidad Test, Sri Lanka begin a three-match one-day international series with the first two encounters scheduled for Queen's Park Oval and the third carded for the Beausejour Cricket Stadium in St Lucia.