In September Colin Rushmere, a South African lawyer, flew to Colombo with 14 contracts for the players of a team Opatha had assembled in secret.

A month later the Sri Lankan team was touring Zimbabwe and Rushmere visited Harare to confirm the participation of Roy Dias and Duleep Mendis.

[1] Sri Lanka were still an emerging team at the time, having only been granted Test status earlier in 1982, and were not regarded as being in the same league as the South Africans.

[2] The team was not helped by the absence of stronger performing players like Dias and Mendis and the underperformance of star spin bowler Ajit de Silva who struggled with stress and had a breakdown on tour.

In 1991 Sri Lankan president Ranasinghe Premadasa lifted the bans on the players allowing many of the rebels to later hold key positions in cricket administration.