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Australia ratifiy plans for Sri Lanka tour

Australian cricket chiefs on Monday ratified plans for the country's forthcoming tour of Sri Lanka after a review of security arrangements.

Australian Cricket Board (ACB) officials visited Sri Lanka late last month to discuss conditions ahead of the tour from August 22 to October 3.

ACB chairman Denis Rogers said the board was satisfied with the report they received.

"We are going to Sri Lanka, we have accepted the recommendations of the report, the findings of the report," Rogers told a media conference.

Australia start the tour with a triangular limited-overs tournament against their hosts and India before a three-Test series against Sri Lanka.

The tour includes games in Colombo, the southern town of Galle and Kandy, where rebel suicide bombers blasted Sri Lanka's holiest Buddhist shrine, killing 16 people in January last year.

Rogers reiterated the ACB was looking at contingency plans for the 1999-2000 home series against India and Pakistan because of the Kashmir conflict between the two countries.

India and Pakistan are scheduled to play three Tests each in Australia followed by a triangular limited-overs series with the host country.

Political pressure from India and Pakistan has already forced the cancellation of the annual one-day tournament between the two countries, held in Canada each September.

Rogers said the ACB hoped to have confirmation from both countries by the board's mid-August meeting.

"The August directors' meeting is a critical time-frame," Rogers said.

ACB chief executive Mal Speed said options being examined included bringing in another country to replace either India or Pakistan in the limited-overs series, staging an extended two-team competition, or involving West Indies and New Zealand in a four-team limited-overs competition.

Speed described these as "very remote" possibilities.

The ACB also said it had agreed to release fast bowler Glenn McGrath to play county cricket in England next year. He is set to join Worcestershire.

The ACB intends to formulate guidelines for future requests from contracted players to protect their health and fitness.

The board reappointed Geoff Marsh as Australian coach until the end of the 2001 Ashes series in England.

UNI