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Sa'adi Thawfeeq reporting from Dambulla

DAMBULLA, Monday - One of the quickest bowlers in contemporary cricket Shane Bond has been ruled out of tomorrow's Bank Alfalah Cup tri-nation one-day match against Sri Lanka to be played at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium here.

New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming said: "Shane's back is still very stiff. We'll get scans done in Colombo. At this stage he is not very mobile." "You can't replace Shane Bond on the field or off it. We'll have to work very hard with what we've got. Shane is going to be missed," said Fleming.

Bond was in his hotel room today and did not attend practice. He bowled only five overs in Sunday's game against Pakistan which New Zealand won before going off the field with a stiff back.

"Earlier on he had a couple of stress fractures when he was 20-22 years old. Since then I think he has got a little bit stronger. I think this will be his first major injury since he had a stress fracture in his ankle a year and a half ago. It's the nature of the fast bowler he is," said Fleming.

"Shane is a type of guy who has made great developments in the past 18 months. I think he could come back and be a better bowler. He could develop more pace," he said. Andre Adams and Kyle Mills are the contenders for Bond's place although New Zealand don't intend to make many changes. "We want to be reasonably consistent with our selections on this part of the tour," said Fleming.

Off-spinner Paul Wiseman who was to leave for home tomorrow has been put on standby just in case. Wiseman who is not a part of the one-day squad stood as cover for Daniel Vettori when the spinner injured his leg in a collision with Marvan Atapattu in the Kandy Test. Sri Lanka who need to win tomorrow to stay in contention in the competition can breathe a little easily now that Bond,is not playing.

"Having lost their opening match to Pakistan by 79 runs, the hosts are facing a 'must win' situation against New Zealand tomorrow. A loss for Sri Lanka could mean disaster and they will then face the prospect of failing to qualify for a home final for the first time in 17 years.

"Inside all of them, the players know that this is a must win game. When we walk onto the field in any game there is a certain amount of pressure you got to cope with," said Sri Lanka one-day captain Marvan Atapattu.

'This is not a 250 wicket so I don't think changing the batting order would help. It is a matter for all six batsmen at the top getting their act together and putting runs on the board," said Atapattu.

"It is the commitment that is lacking. We all know it, but it doesn't happen when we walk into the middle. That includes me. I will be the first one to put up my hand and say I should be blamed.

This lack of commitment on the part of the batsmen started six-seven months back when we were in South Africa. It is acceptable for one or two batsmen to have bad patches. It will always happens. But in our case, too many batsmen are having bad patches at the wrong time," he said.

"I don't think they've got confidence in their batting," said Fleming. "It is just the general feeling I have and the changes they've made. As someone from outside I could be wrong but confidence is something you need for any tournament throughout.

Players with confidence will go close to winning it," he said. One plus factor for Atapattu is that Sanath Jayasuriya is fit and available for selection tomorrow. Jayasuriya sounded alarm bells when he went down with tonsillitis on Saturday and did not take part in the practice the following day. But however with the medication he has received, he has recovered to the extent to attend practice and bat at the nets today.

Manager Ajith Jayasekera said that Jayasuriya may have to go for an operation to have his tonsils removed, but it is unlikely to happen until the end of the tour to the West Indies which starts next month.

With the middle-order as unstable as it is, Atapattu said that the team had come to realise that it is important for them to bat right till the end. In that context, bowlers like Muttiah Muralitharan and Prabath Nissanka all got a batting turn ahead of the established batsmen at the nets today which was moving away from the usual concept at practice. "This is something which I have emphasised on after taking over the captaincy. I always believe that everyone should contribute. We must value our wickets. There shouldn't be two departments to say this is our batsmen and this is our bowlers. We are a team and all must contribute," said Atapattu.

Sri Lanka interim coach Duleep Mendis said that the batsmen should get back to basics and learn to build an innings.

"You've got to plan out your batting strategy because when you get to 20 or 30 you can't relax. The moment you do that you will be back in the pavilion. We have been talking about this several times. When you go to the middle it is mental. You have plan out your own strategy. Even though they are young they have played quite a lot of one-day matches. There is no excuse," said Mendis.

"The conditions experienced here is no excuse for the batting failures. As international professional cricketers they've got to just themselves and not give lame excuses. These types of excuses come from a team that is average," he said.

Sri Lanka are likely to make a couple of changes to their side with Tillekeratne Dilshan replacing the out of form Russel Arnold and Kumar Dharmasena taking over from Kaushalya Weeraratne.

Sri Lanka will probably get a wicket which is more akin to their type of bowling. The pitches for the first two matches had a lot of moisture on it which helped the seam bowlers, but tomorrow's pitch which will be the same as that used for the game between Sri Lanka and Pakistan on Saturday, is expected to be very dry.

Fleming having had a look at it said: "The nature of the wicket suggest it hasn't seen a lot of water since the last game which is quite surprising. I think it will be a different natured game altogether," he said.

The teams: SRI LANKA (from): Marvan Atapattu (captain), Sanath Jayasuriya, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Romesh Kaluwitharana, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kaushal Lokuarachchi, Chaminda Vaas, Kumar Dharmasena, Prabath Nissanka, Muttiah Muralitharan, Kaushlaya Weeraratne, Upul Chandana.

NEW ZEALAND (From): Stephen Fleming (Captain), Chris Nevin, Lou Vincent, Scott Styris, Christ Cairns, Jacob Oram, Chris Harris, Brian McCullum, Daniel Vettori, Daryl Tuffey, Andre Adams, Kyle Mills.

UMPIRES; Tyronne Wijewardene (Sri Lanka) and Simon Taufel (Australia).

TV UMPIRE: Peter Manuel (Sri Lanka).

MATCH REFEREE; Gundappa Viswanath (India).

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