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Three players have notified Sri Lanka Tennis Association (SLTA) that they are not available to represent the country at the Davis Cup (Asia/Oceania Zone Group IV) competition to be staged in Dhaka, Bangladesh which has now being scheduled for March 18 to 24. Earlier, it was scheduled for March 11 to 17.

Both Renouk Wijemanne (former national champion) and Sanjeev Paramanathan who are studying in the USA that they are not available due to the new dates, while veteran Ganendra Subramaniam has indicated that he too cannot make himself available.

A spokesman for the SLTA told the Sunday Observer that the above named three players have been replaced by Amrith Rupasinghe, Oshada Wijemanne and Shamalan Sabanathan. The others in the pool are Rajiv Rajapakse (reigning national champion), Harshana Godamanne, Sasith Wickremasinghe, Franklyn Emmanual and N. S. Nishendran.

He said that the trials were to be completed today (Sunday) and that the final four players to represent the country at Dhaka will be announced soon by the national selectors. Sanjay Wijemanne (a former national champion, Davis Cup player and national selector) will be the non-playing captain, while Irshad Othman will be the manager.

Sri Lanka are in Group 'B' with Jordan, Bangladesh and Oman, while Brunei, Bahrain and Tajikistan are in Group 'A'. The Lankan team is scheduled to leave for Dhaka on March 15.

Meanwhile, six players (three boys and three girls) are to figure at the South Asian Junior (under-14) Championship in New Delhi India from January 26 to February 3. The three boys are N. S. Nishendran, Franklyn Emmanual and Shamalan Sabanathan, while the girls are Shanki Dandeniya, Piyumi Abeysinghe and Amitha Arulpragasam.

The Futures Championship which will see world ranked players in action too is scheduled to take place at the National Tennis Centre (NTC) in Greenpath in March where the total prize money is US Dollars 10,000, while the qualifying rounds of the World Junior Championship (Asia/Oceania Zone) too is scheduled to be staged end April at the NTC.

The 19th Sri Lanka Junior (under-18) International Championship, which is a Group IV competition of the ITF is scheduled to start tomorrow (Monday) and conclude on January 20.

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