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What's the story?
Lasith Malinga is likely to be available for the next two Mumbai Indians' games after the Sri Lanka Cricket Board allowed the pacer to take part in the first few games of the Indian Premier League.
The background
Sri Lanka Cricket Board had earlier announced that participation in the Super Provincial One-Day Tournament was necessary for the Sri Lankan players to be eligible for selection in the World Cup squad. Malinga was also named as the captain of the Galle team for the competition.
Earlier, he had pulled himself out for the first few games to allow himself to take part in the tournament to be held in Sri Lanka.
Having already lost Adam Milne, Mumbai Indians suffered another blow due to Malinga's unavailability. However, BCCI has now stepped in and requested the Sri Lanka Cricket Board to allow the T20 veteran to take part in a few games at the start of the season.
The details
Upon the request of the BCCI, its Sri Lankan counterpart has decided to release Lasith Malinga until the begin of the Super Provincial One-Day Tournament. Hence, Malinga is likely to be available for the next two games of Mumbai Indians against RCB and Kings XI Punjab on March 28th and March 30th respectively.
Malinga will then return to his home-nation to take part in the week-long domestic competition before returning for the Mumbai Indians around mid of April.
Speaking about the entire sequence of events, the chief selector of Sri Lanka Cricket team Ashantha de Mel said, "We have no issues if he goes to IPL - the board had given him a no-objection certificate already, so he's free to go. Anyway he has been one of our best bowlers in one-dayers, so there's no question about his place in the team."
What's next?
After a loss in the first game to Delhi Capitals, Mumbai Indians will now travel for their next games against RCB and KXIP. Despite Malinga's availability, it needs to be seen whether the T20 veteran will make it to the playing XI.
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