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England blame decision to play Sri Lanka during monsoon season on packed schedule

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With more storms expected over the weekend the weather could play another large part in this series as the Sri Lankan monsoon threatens the second one-day international in Dambulla.

England have explained the decision to tour Sri Lanka in the wet season by blaming the packed international schedule which forces some series to be played during out of season months. 

Ideally England would start this tour in November but Sri Lanka are due to start their own tour in New Zealand on Dec 7 before going on to Australia and South Africa. 

The players do not want to be away for Christmas, there was talk of a Boxing Day Test in Barbados at one point this summer, which pushes the West Indies tour into January leaving no more room in the schedule to play Sri Lanka.

Originally it was planned for the Test series against Sri Lanka to be played now but was switched to the one-dayers first at the request of the home team. It forced Eoin Morgan to change the date of his wedding and is why Liam Plunkett is missing the first three matches to get married in America having been unable to postpone. 

The monsoon should lift by the end of the month and the heavy showers in the Dambulla region were localised on Wednesday with the area around the ground badly hit but other parts left dry. There was no rain on Thursday so the first ODI could have been finished if there had been a reserve day put in the schedule. There is a reserve day for the second ODI this weekend and the last in Colombo on Oct 23.

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