da dobrowin： The potential violence that faces Sri Lanka ahead and afterits December 5 parliamentary elections is of little worry tothe West Indies team
Haydn Gill31-Oct-2001The potential violence that faces Sri Lanka ahead and afterits December 5 parliamentary elections is of little worry tothe West Indies team.Captain Carl Hooper, manager Ricky Skerritt and the rest ofthe squad were in an upbeat mood ahead of their departurefor the Asian country yesterday.While speaking to reporters at the Grantley AdamsInternational Airport, Hooper said the whole situationshould hopefully have no effect on the team.The minute the decision was taken for the tour to go on, weas professionals have had to focus straight on the cricket,the West Indies captain said.If we start worrying about what is happening off the fieldwith the politics in Sri Lanka, it would be a wrong note tostart the tour on. We are totally focussed and committed toplaying good cricket in Sri Lanka. What’s happening off thefield will take care of itself.Last July, there was a Tamil Tigers attack on ColomboAirport that destroyed several aircraft and killed 30people, while there was a blast on the outskirts of thecapital two days ago that killed a suicide bomber from theTamil Tigers, a policeman and injured 17 others.In light of safety concerns, West Indies Cricket Boardpresident Reverend Wes Hall was given assurances oversecurity from goverment and cricket officials in Sri Lankaat an International Cricket Council meet in Malaysia lessthan two weeks ago.Skerritt, who met with top officials in Sri Lanka’s Ministryof National Security before the announcement of the date forgeneral elections, said security was not a big issue for theteam.What they tell me in Sri Lanka is that this is very localpolitical party versus political party and it gets heated upclose to the election, he said.We don’t expect to experience any of it or very little ofit. If we find that the security arrangements are not to oursatisfaction, we are going to try to get it improved and ifwe can’t get it improved, we’ll have to take other steps.Skerritt tried to play down the issue by pointing topolitical violence that affected Jamaica while the team wasin camp in Kingston as well as the staging of a Test matchin Guyana earlier this year, a week ahead of elections.None of us felt the effects of it because none of us isinvolved in politics, he said.When asked if he was disturbed by Monday’s reports inColombo, the West Indies manager said: Any news about deathand violence is perturbing. I’m not trying to cast anyaspersions. Unfortunately, these have become far too commonin too many cities, but cricketers tend to get veryprotected from that reality. We don’t have any reason to getinvolved or close to it. But we will be vigilant and we willcontinue to make sure that everything possible is done togive us the best possible security.Squad: Carl Hooper (captain), Ridley Jacobs (vicecaptain), Chris Gayle, Daren Ganga, Brian Lara, RamnareshSarwan, Marlon Samuels, Wavell Hinds, Leon Garrick, NeilMcGarrell, Dinanath Ramnarine, Colin Stuart, Mervyn Dillon,Marlon Black, Reon King, Pedro Collins.Ricky Skerritt(manager), Roger Harper (coach), Ronald Rogers (sportstherapist).