The visit to the island nation was in jeopardy, with the ACB expressing security concerns following a bomb blast in Colombo earlier this month which left 70 dead and several dozen more injured. In February, Australia had boycotted its league fixture in the World Cup, again in Colombo, fol- lowing a suicide bombing that killed 90 people and injured 400 others.
ACB chairman Denis Rogers announced that after consider- ing all aspects of the situation, it was decided to go ahead with the tour. The other participating nations, India and Zimbabwe who along with hosts Sri Lanka will compete for the Singer Cup, have already confirmed their presence.
With captain Mark Taylor having dropped out owing to a back problem, wicketkeeper Ian Healy was named captain of the 13member Aussie squad for the Cup. Taylor's opening slot will be taken by South Australian southpaw Darren Leh- mann, while West Australia's Brad Hogg will replace star leg-spinner Shane Warne, who had ruled himself out of the tour earlier Friday.
Warne, who bowled in the nets on Thursday, decided to give his injured finger more rest in an attempt to get fully fit for the longer tour of India in October, which includes a one-off Test for the newly instituted Border-Gavaskar Cup, and a triangular series of one-dayers with South Africa being the third team in the contest.
``Safety concerns remain''' said ACB chairman Denis Rogers. ``We still have some concerns about this particular overseas tour, but nevertheless the advice is that things are a lot better, significantly better, than they were in February.
``We've had extensive discussions with a significant number of people and organisations, as we did in February, to get the best possible information we could in order to make our decision,'' the ACB boss said. ``All things considered, we finally decided to go ahead with the tour.''
Captain elect Ian Healy indicated that security was up- permost in the minds of the players as well. ``I will admit that there is some reservation about going on this tour. True, some are more concerned than others,'' the veteran keeper said, adding, ``But these reservations will never go away until we ac- tually go on the tour. We have supported the decision the ACB has made.''