Sri Lanka's Pradeep out of World Cup - with chicken pox!

Chester-le-Street - Sri Lanka's faltering Cricket World Cup campaign suffered a fresh blow on Saturday as paceman Nuwan Pradeep was ruled out for the remainder of the tournament with chickenpox.

Seamer Kasun Rajitha will take the place of Pradeep, who took five wickets in his three outings, including one in his team's surprise win over England. 

"Fast bowler Pradeep has been infected with chickenpox, which has ruled him out of further participation in the event," the International Cricket Council said in a statement.

The 1996 champions, who lost heavily to South Africa on Friday, need to win their remaining two matches and hope other results go in their favour to make the semi-finals of the 10-team competition.

Sri Lanka play West Indies in Chester-le-Street on Monday and India in Leeds on July 6.