The Australians, who will be the first of the three participating nations to arrive in Lanka, ahead of both Zimbabwe and India, are being put up at Hotel Lanka Oberoi, in Colombo, under conditions of luxury tempered with absolute security.
``We aim to do everything possible to keep the Australian team safe and happy, as also the other teams that will be staying in our hotel,'' says Oberoi public relations off- icer Shadhi de Silva.
Besides the hotel's own security corps, the elite Spe- cial Task Force and units of the Colombo police force will be deployed in and around the refurbished wing of the Lanka Oberoi where the three visiting teams for the four- nation tournament will will be put up.
The tournament climaxes with the final, scheduled for September seven.
Vice-president of the Sri Lankan cricket board Thilanga Sumathipala has meanwhile cautioned the locals to refrin from any acts of sabotage or harm that could bring disrepute to the country's image.
That Sumathipala had in his mind the soured relations between Australia and Sri Lanka was underlined when board president Upali Dharmdasa said, ``All forms of misunderstandings that may be prevailing between the two sides can be cleared up once Australia comes here. We have taken into account everything they (the Aussies) have shown concern for. We will take care of them like we do all the teams that come here,'' the Lankan cricket boss promised.
Relations between the two teams first soured in December 1995, when the touring Sri Lankans were accused - without cause, as it subsequently turned out - of ball tamper- ing. The accusations, first levelled by the Australian umpire doing duty in the first Test of the series, was blown up by the media and put the Lankan tourists under severe pressure.
Even as they were exonerated of the charge by the ICC, another storm broke loose when Lanka's ace spinner Mut- tiah Muralitharan was called for 'chucking' - again, by an Australian umpire. Again, subsequent enquiries with the aid of video replays by the ICC absolved Muralitharan of the charge - but the damage had by then been done.
In the same Test, the second of the series, Australian wicketkeeper Ian Healy's (and captain of the current touring side) sledging finally proved too much for Sri Lankan skipper Arjuna Ranatunga to take, and the two were involved in a mid pitch confrontation.
The Aussies then rubbed it in - at least, that is how the Lankan public saw it - when they boycotted the scheduled World Cup game in the Lankan capital, Colombo, pleading security concerns following an attack by a suicide bomber on the capital city in which 90 people were killed, barely a week before the competition was slated to begin.
The Lankan team made no secret of how much the incidents had affected them when, after defeating Australia handi- ly in the final of the Will World Cup, skipper Arjuna Ranatunga smilingly said that he had his team were motivated to prove a point to the Australians.
It is this legacy that the Lankans are now looking to smooth over - if only to reciprocate the gesture of the Aussie board which, despite another bomb blast, this time in a commuter train, in the period leading up to the Singer Cup has decided to send its team to Sri Lanka.
``We aim to ensure that the tourists are safe, and happy, and can concentrate on playing good cricket without any outside worries,'' said Lankan cricket board chief Dharmdasa.