Prior to their departure early this morning, the team led by veteran Arjuna Ranatunga attended night long religious ceremonies and sought the blessings of Buddhist monks and their parents at the cricket Board headquarters here.

The World Cup champions, who begin their campaign against the hosts at the inaugural match on May 14, would proceed to Leicester for their practice sessions after a brief halt at London to attend the World Cup dinner.

Despite recent losses, plagued by injury to key players especially Sanath Jayasuriya and Muttiah Muralitharan, team manager Duleep Mendis exuded confidence that the team would do well.

``We have a few surprises up our sleeve which we hope to put into operation during the World Cup. It may work out to our advantageor it may not. But you always got to have new ideas.''

He said his confidence stemmed from the fact that all their top players, including Jayasuriya, Muralitharan and Aravinda de Silva were ``100 per cent fit''.

Secondly, Sri Lanka has always performed well in England including the last series in which Ranatunga's boys trounced England in One-Dayers and the one-off Test.

Mendis said ``when you have performed very well in a particular country you will always get back to that place with a lot of confidence.''

He said the recent loss of form has made the team sit up and analyse their reasons for the loss of 15 the last 20 matches they played. ``Each player had been analysed by coach Roy Dias and new Australian recruit Trevor Chappell and corrective measures suggested.''

In fact, the team was so impressed with the younger of the legendary Chappell brothers that they have taken him along to England, informed Mendis.

Pay dispute ends

LONDON: England's cricketers have ended the wage disputewhich had threatened to damage the host team's campaign at the upcoming World Cup.

Less than three weeks before England opens the 1999 World Cup against defending titlist Sri Lanka at Lord's, England skipper Alec Stewart announced yesterday that his 15-man squad had agreed to a compromise with the England Cricket Board.

``All the (players) have now agreed to sign their contracts and we're looking forward to playing in the tournament and to hopefully achieving success,'' Stewart said.

Each member of the squad is expected to earn 45,000 pounds ($72,500) including bonus payments if the England team wins the six-week tournament.

The pay feud started before England departed for pre-World Cup warm-ups at Lahore and Sharjah, where it lost in three of its four games against eventual winner Pakistan and India. The players were given until April 26 to agree to a new deal or risk being fired from the team.

Bacher to step down

JOHANNESBURG: Ali Bacher will step down from his position as managingdirector of the United Cricket Board of South Africa (UCBSA) next year to concentrate on organising the 2003 World Cup in South Africa. Bacher, who has been at the helm since its inception in 1991, was asked by the UCBSA last weekend to take the position and he accepted it yesterday. ``The board's feeling was that the tournament was going to be of such great importance to South Africa, with so much at stake, that there would have to be someone whose sole responsibility it was to look after it,'' UCBSA president Raymond White said.