 |
West Indies A toured Sri Lanka for a cricket tournament between 23 June and 19 July 2005. They played three unofficial four-day "Tests" and five unofficial "ODIs". The plans for the tour were only confirmed in mid-June as a result of a dispute over sponsorship between the West Indies Cricket Association and its players. The row continued between the Association and the senior West Indian players, though, which led to the Association asking all West Indies A players whether they would make themselves available for the Test tour immediately following the A tour. On 28 June it was announced that they had unanimously declined the request. However, that unanimous agreement vanished in the coming days, and several players were called up from the A squad to the main squad – resulting in the A squad needing more players. Twenty players eventually turned out for the West Indies A squad. Both the first-class and one-day series were alive until the very last match, though. West Indies A took a 57-run victory in the first "Test" match, taking the last five wickets of that game for three runs, but crashed to a humbling innings defeat in the second. Sri Lanka A won the series 2–1 thanks to a four-wicket win in the last match. In the one-dayers, West Indies could have forced a drawn series if they had managed to win the last game, but Sri Lanka's bowling undid them and they lost the series 3–1.