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Bomb blast won't affect Lanka tour, say Aussies

The Australian Cricket Board has no plans to cancel the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka despite a bomb blast in Colombo which killed one of the country's politicians on Thursday.

During the 1996 World Cup, Australian cricketers refused to play in Sri Lanka because of security fears after 100 people were killed when a bank building in Colombo was blown up.

The rebel Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam (LTTE) were responsible for that attack and have also been blamed for Thursday's suicide blast, in which moderate Tamil politician Neelan Thiruchelvam was killed.

However, ACB chief executive Malcolm Speed said he had been in contact with the Australian High Commission in Colombo and his counterparts on the Sri Lankan board and the tour, scheduled to begin next month, will go ahead.

"Their advice is that we proceed subject to the usual security precautions," Speed said.

"The current situation is quite different from the previous one and the advice we've had from the High Commission is the tour should go ahead."

Speed said the players selected for the tour were not concerned by the news of the bomb blast and accepted it as "part and parcel" of being a professional cricketer.

Australia's tour of Sri Lanka begins on August 22 with a triangular one-day tournament also involving India. The Australians will also play three Test matches there in September and early October.

Agencies