Opener Dhananjaya de Silva struck an unbeaten 78 to help Sri Lanka beat Zimbabwe by eight wickets on Monday in the opening match of the triangular one-day tournament that also features West Indies.

Australia will be looking to local legend and one-time bogeyman Muttiah Muralitharan to inspire them to success on his home patch as the world's number one Test team begin a three-match series in Sri Lanka this week.

Sri Lanka Cricket will refuse no-objection certificates to at least 16 centrally-contracted players seeking to take part in this year's Bangladesh Premier League, an SLC official says.