COLOMBO, July 20: South African cricketers had no worries about visiting Sri Lanka despite deteriorating security in the island nation, the captain said on Thursday.

''We have done our research before we came. We have been assured that everything is fine and we are looking forward to playing good cricket,'' Ashwell Prince told reporters.

Sri Lanka has seen escalating violence over the past several months that threatens to re-ignite full-scale civil war in the island nation after four years of relative peace.

More than 750 people have been killed since December, straining a 2002 cease-fire between the government and separatist Tamil Tiger rebels that halted a civil conflict which killed more than 65,000 since 1983.

There have been two suicide bomb attacks blamed on the rebels in Colombo and its suburbs in the past three months, in which a top military general was killed and the country's army commander was wounded.

South Africa will play a two-match Test series starting next Thursday followed by a tri-nation series also involving India.

Prince said that his team goes into the series as underdogs without the team's regular captain Graeme Smith, all-rounders Jacques Kallis and Shaun Pollock. They are facing a confident Sri Lanka after a successful England tour. Prince expressed hope that younger players would step in and do a good job.

Sri Lanka drew the three-match Test series 1-1 and inflicted a 5-0 rout in the limited-overs series against England.

Sri Lankan skipper Mahela Jayawardene said that his team should approach the series afresh without being complacent after the successful English series.—AP