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Sri Lankan captain Arjuna Ranatunga has pledged his team will concentrate on the defence of their world crown and ignore any furore stirred up around them.

The world champions had only just stepped foot on English soil after their arrival at Heathrow Airport when Ranatunga was confronted with media aiming to re-ignite his war of words with England captain Alec Stewart.

Ranatunga had a heated exchange with Stewart during the Carlton & United one-day series in Australia, with the Sri Lankan taking his side off the pitch after star spinner Muttiah Muralitharan was controversially no-balled by Ross Emerson. Stewart recently claimed in his book 'A Captain's Diary' that Ranatunga played one-day cricket to the very edge of the rules.

But Ranatunga refused to get drawn into an argument, saying: ``I don't know how he can assess Sri Lankan cricket - he doesn't know anything about it. He should concentrate on looking after his own side and make sure they win.''

He added: ``I can see he's worried, otherwise he wouldn't keep talking about it. My message to Alec is we're here to win the World Cup.''

Ranatunga is expecting a hostile reception when his side begin their defence in the tournament's opening match against England at Lord's next month.

``I would like to say that we're here to play proper cricket and not dwell on the past,'' he said. ``However, I'm not worried by the England supporters. Crowds can be good or bad, hooligans or decent. If there is violence I expect the authorities to deal with it.''

Ranatunga played a straight bat when asked about the decision of the International Cricket Council not to select controversial umpire Daryll Hair for any of the world champions group matches.

Hair is one of several umpires to consistently no-ball Muralitharan in recent years and his presence would have almost certainly incited the world champions.

The umpires for the opening match are experienced Indian official Srinivas Venkat, and respected South African Rudi Koertzen.

``We are not concerned about who stands in our games, we're here to play proper cricket and I hope we can. We cannot select the umpires, we have no influence over that.''