COLOMBO, April 12: New Zealand’s cricket tour of Sri Lanka is set to go ahead, the cricket board here said on Saturday after the side said it would monitor the deadly SARS outbreak in Asia before committing to the trip.

The team was due in Colombo early on Tuesday, the Sri Lankan Cricket Board said.

The New Zealanders had said they would monitor the rapidly spreading Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which has killed more than 200 people worldwide, before deciding on the tour. No SARS cases have been reported in Sri Lanka.

New Zealand’s cricketers have always entertained reservations about touring Sri Lanka due to the Indian ocean island’s long-running separatist armed conflict.

The Kiwis abandoned their 1987 tour after the Tamil Tigers carried out a bomb attack on the busy central bus terminal in Colombo.

In 1992 the Kiwis made a hurried departure when the Tamil Tigers assassinated the country’s naval commander just outside the team hotel in Colombo.

New Zealand will play two Tests here and then take part in a one-day triangular series with Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

First Test begins in Colombo on April 25, followed by the second Test in Kandy on May 3.—AFP