Sanath Jayasuriya meets actor Mammootty
Former Sri Lanka opener Sanath Jayasuriya on Tuesday met Malayalam actor Mammootty who is in Lanka to shoot a film. The Sri Lankan superstar shared a post with the movie legend, captioned, “It was an honour to meet Senior Malayalam actor @mammukka. Sir you are a true super star. Thank you for coming to Sri Lanka. I would like to invite all Indian stars & friends to #VisitSriLanka to enjoy our country.”
In the post, Jayasuria, who was recently appointed his country’s tourism brand ambassador, urged Indian stars and friends to visit Sri Lanka which has been reeling under an unprecedented economic crisis. The Indian Ocean island’s debt-laden economy collapsed after it ran out of money to pay for food, fuel and medicine — sparking months of protests. The government owes $51 billion (€50 billion) and is struggling to make interest payments on those loans, let alone pay down the principal.
Recently, the Australia men’s cricket team players who had visited Sri Lanka for 3 T20Is, 5 ODIs and 2 Tests, donated their prize money from their tour of the island nation to support the locals in need, Cricket Australia had stated.
It was an honour to meet Senior Malayalam actor @mammukka . Sir you are a true super star. Thank you for coming to Sri Lanka. I would like to invite all Indian stars & friends to #VisitSriLanka to enjoy our country pic.twitter.com/7PHX2kakH8
— Sanath Jayasuriya (@Sanath07) August 16, 2022
“Our Aussie men have donated their prize money from the recent tour of Sri Lanka to support children and families impacted the nation’s worst economic crisis in decades,” CA wrote on their official Twitter handle.
“The donation will go towards @unicefaustralia‘s programs to support nutrition, healthcare, safe drinking water, education and mental health services,” read a follow-up tweet.
The donation was led Australian Test captain Pat Cummins, a UNICEF Australia ambassador, and Aaron Finch, who is the national team captain in ODIs and T20Is. A total of 45,000 Australia dollars (25,36,294 lakhs in INR) was donated the team.
The cricket took place amidst the internal turmoil in the country owing to the bleak financial situation and protests demanding the resignation of the then President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
Sri Lanka will next play in the Asia Cup, followed the T20 World Cup in October.
