Islamabad: Pakistan Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani said Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa had told him the terrorists involved in the attack on his country's cricket team in Lahore were funded from elements in the island.

Four months after a deadly terror attack on the Sri Lankan team in Pakistan, the two nations will renew their Test cricket rivalry when the first Test starts at Galle on Saturday.

The Indian Premier League (IPL), which has now been shifted to South Africa, was the prime target of a large scale terrorist strike by Islamic militants, on the lines of 26/11, targeting a host of foreign cricket players, a leading American think-tank has said.

Two Sri Lankan cricket players remain hospitalised in Colombo, two weeks after the squad was attacked by militant gunmen in Pakistan, the team's doctor said on March 16. Thilan Samaraweera, who had a bullet removed from his left thigh, and Ajantha Mendis, who had shrapnel extracted from his head and back,

The attack on the Sri Lankan players in Lahore is part of a bigger conspiracy to isolate Pakistan in international cricket and if the terrorists succeed in their mission, they would carry out similar operations in India and other Asian countries, fears former Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Nasim Ashraf.

WHY did Pakistan's cricket team set out for the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore seven minutes after Sri Lanka's, thus avoiding the worst terrorist attack on international sport since the 1972 Munich Olympics? Was it chance - or an inside job? This and other disturbing questions are being asked by some of the foreigners who were travelling in the Sri Lanka team convoy when it was attacked by a dozen suspected Islamist militants on Tuesday morning.

Sri Lankan government has not ruled out the possibility that Tamil Tigers were in the attack on their cricket team at Lahore. "We do not rule out," the involvement of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as they steadily lose territory to government forces,said Sri Lankan Foreign MinisterShah Mahmood Qureshi.

New Zealand have cancelled their planned tour of Pakistan in the wake of a terrorist attack targeting the Sri Lanka team in Lahore on Tuesday. Six police officers and two civilians were killed, and seven Sri Lanka team members were injured when gunmen opened fire on the team bus outside Gaddafi stadium as the bus arrived for the third day of the second Test against Pakistan.

Meher Mohammad Khalil , the bus driver who saved the lives of the Sri Lankan cricket team during Wednesday's terror attack is now considered a big hero in Pakistan. Khali kept his head cool and drove the bus to safety when it came under gun and grenade attack from terrorists. Meher Mohammad Khalil says he did it for Pakistan.

The International Cricket Council on Tuesday vowed to keep the game alive despite a terror attack wounding six Sri Lankan players in Lahore but scratched Pakistan out of the list of venues for international matches in the foreseeable future. "The world is a dangerous place but cricket must go on. It will go on. It's a great game and a great solace to so many people,"