SRI LANKA arrive in Canterbury tomorrow armed with a licence to thrill the St Lawrence crowds over three days.

The match marks the start of Sri Lanka's first ever three-Test tour and the return of some familiar faces, including the county's former overseas player Aravinda de Silva, ex-coach Daryl Foster and the tourists' batting guru, former South African and Hampshire legend, Barry Richards.

Renowned for their attacking batting, Sri Lanka will, however, miss the spinning guiles of Muthiah Muralitharan, the former Lashings player, who looks set to sit out the tour after undergoing an operation to repair ligaments in his left shoulder.

Despite the injury to his top bowler, Sri Lankan coach Dav Whatmore is promising batting fireworks throughout the trip. He said: "We will give you the sort of cricket that the public of England have been missing for many years. The Sri Lankan batting style is just wonderful and even I just sit and marvel at it from time to time."

One man hoping not to marvel for too long this weekend will be Kent's new first-class captain David Fulton, who sees the fixture as ideal preparation for next week's Benson and Hedges Cup zonal matches.

"On their day Sri Lanka are world-class with some great batters," he said. "We won't be underestimating them, but our priority will be preparing for the B&H.

"We will be looking to attack which could make this a very entertaining game with both sides putting bat to ball. If the weather stays fine we're hoping for a good crowd.

"We still await final fitness reports, but it would be good to get Saggers, Trott, Golding and Ealham all in against Sri Lanka so we can see where they're at in terms of fitness."

He added: "We've played one day games in pre-season and will use this match against Sri Lanka to play positively and get as many players as we can in good touch. If you're in good touch it is far easier to adapt to the one-day style."

The middle day of the match (Saturday) is Kent's annual open day when ground admission is free, though usual championship rates will apply for Friday and Sunday.

Kent then face five cup ties in the space of seven days, starting with Monday's clash at The Rose Bowl with Hampshire followed by Tuesday's tie at home to Sussex.

They follow that by entertaining Middlesex at St Lawrence on Thursday, travel to take on favourites Surrey at The Oval on the Saturday and wrap up the qualifiers at home to Essex on Monday, April 6.