Sri Lanka to carry on wearing ´lucky´ yellow World Cup shirts

MANCHESTER: Sri Lanka will stick with the yellow shirts they wore in their victory against England as a World Cup lucky charm after getting approval from the International Cricket Council.

Dimuth Karunaratne´s side revived their flagging campaign by upsetting the hosts at Headingley to blow the race for the semi-finals wide open.

Sri Lanka, whose first-choice shirts are predominantly dark blue, will wear their alternative yellow kit in the team´s remaining three group games.

"We approved Sri Lanka´s request to carry on wearing yellow as the colour," an International Cricket Council spokesman told AFP. "Every team chose an alternate colour prior to the start of the tournament."

The 1996 champions next play South Africa, who cannot reach the semi-finals, on Friday in the first of their final three league matches in the 10-team competition, with games against the West Indies and India to follow.

Defending champions Australia have already qualified for the last four, with India and New Zealand also closing in.