March 27, 2003	Thursday	Muharram 23, 1424

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SHARJAH (UAE), March 26: Kenya and Zimbabwe have been invited to replace South Africa in next month’s Sharjah Cup, organisers said on Wednesday.

The tri-nation event, which was to feature South Africa, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, had been planned for April 1-10 but organisers were forced to reschedule after South Africa pulled out because of the Gulf conflict. It will now take place from April 3 to 10.

“We have invited Kenya and Zimbabwe to replace South Africa and the two countries are awaiting clearance from their respective ministries of foreign affairs,” Qasim Noorani, president of the CBFS, said on Wednesday night.

“If both teams are cleared by their ministries, we will have a four-nation tournament. We are confident of getting all-clear from at least one of the two countries,” he said.

“Our deadline is Thursday afternoon and we will know only after that whether we have a three or four-nation tournament,” he said.

Pakistan and Sri Lanka have already agreed to play in the tournament.

The CBFS also explored the possibility of staging the event in Colombo, but “South Africa were not prepared to play there,” Noorani said.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka has been ruled out as a possible venue for the troubled Sharjah Cup, cricket officials said in Colombo on Wednesday.

CBFS had hoped that the event could be switched to an alternative venue, and officials had been quoted as saying Sri Lanka was a possibility.

But cricket board officials ruled out the possibility of the tournament being hosted in Sri Lanka.

“Our President (Hemaka Amarasuriya) told me that the organisers have ruled out Colombo as a venue for the tournament,” Charnika Munasinghe, spokesperson for the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka (BCCSL) said.

An earlier reported, however, quoted a BCCSL saying that Colombo was willing to stage the trigangular event.

“We are definitely willing to hold the tournament here and we have conveyed our position to the concerned authorities,” said Jayantha Kudahetty of the cricket board.

“We are in touch with the United Cricket Board of South Africa to see if they agree to play in Colombo,” Kudahetty said.—Agencies