India sending second string team is insult to Sri Lanka cricket, says Arjuna Ranatunga

World Cup-winning captain Arjuna Ranatunga has said it is insulting seeing Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) host a second-string Indian team just for television marketing needs.

With Virat Kohli-led 'full strength' Indian team is currently in England for a five-match Test series, Shikhar Dhawan is set to lead a young Indian team that has been sent to Sri Lanka for a limited-overs series. India and Sri Lanka will lock horns in three One-Day Internatioanls (ODIs) and three Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is), starting July 13. All the matches will be played at the R.Premadasa Stadium, Colombo.

"This is a second string Indian team and their coming here is an insult to our cricket. I blame the current administration for agreeing to play with them due to television marketing needs," Sri Lanka legend Ranatunga, who was a government minister until two years ago, told reporters at his residence.

Apart from Kohli, the other big names, who are not a part of the Sri Lanka tour are Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, KL Rahul, and Rishabh Pant – all of them are in the UK for the Test series, which is due to begin on August 4 at Trent Bridge, Nottingham.

However, the Dhawan-led side does include limited-overs regular faces in Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, along with a few fresh faces like Devdutt Padikkal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Chetan Sakariya.

"India sent their best team to England and sent a weaker side to play here. I blame our board for that," added Ranatunga, who led Sri Lanka to the 1996 ODI World Cup title.

Former India cricketer and current chief of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) Rahul Dravid has travelled with Dhawan and Co to Sri Lanka as their head coach since Ravi Shastri is with Kohli's side in England.

In the same interview, Ranatunga also pointed out the current poor run of the Sri Lankan team in the international circuit. Sri Lanka recently suffered their fifth consecutive T20I series loss when they went 3-0 down to England last month. Recently, SLC was forced to send three senior players back home from England for breaching the bio-secure bubble protocol. Ranatunga said that the lack of discipline was also the administration's fault and when he was at the helm, he did not allow any misconduct.

Ranatunga was the head of an interim committee politically appointed in 2007-08.