West Indies’ captain, Carl Hooper, has warned his players to focus on thecricket and not on safety concerns as the West Indies begin their first tourto the island for eight years

CricInfo01-Nov-2001West Indies’ captain, Carl Hooper, has warned his players to focus on thecricket and not on safety concerns as the West Indies begin their first tourto the island for eight years.Hooper had voiced safety concerns prior to the teams departure beforereassurances were given by the Sri Lankan board, but expects his team to beable to focus on the cricket despite predicted election violence over thecoming weeks.”As professionals, we have to focus straight on the cricket,” he said. “Ifwe start worrying (about) what is going to happen off the field with thepolitics in Sri Lanka, then it will be a wrong note to start the tour on.Hooper admitted the Sri Lanka posed his stiffest challenge yet overseas ascaptain: “Obviously this tour is going to be a sterner test than theZimbabwean tour but I think we’ve got the players to deal with it,” he said.Team manager, Ricky Skerritt, who visited Sri Lanka recently to check on tour arrangements and met with top officials in the Ministry of National Security, was convinced that security was not a big issue for the team."What they tell me in Sri Lanka is that this is very local – political party versus political party – and it gets heated up close to the election," he said."We don’t expect to experience any of it – or very little of it. "If we find that the security arrangements are not to our satisfaction, we are going to try to get it improved and if we can’t get it improved, we’ll have to take other steps."Meanwhile, coach Roger Harper has brushed aside concerns that the team wouldbe adversely affected by injuries to star batsman Brain Lara andwicket-keeper Ridley Jacobs saying that he expected both players to play afull part in the tour.The team’s preparations have been marred by injuries. Key middle orderbatsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul was forced to pullout with back problems,whilst Lara (hamstring) and Jacobs (finger) were included despite not havingfully recovered from their respective injuries.Chanderpaul’s replacement, Jamaican left-hander Wavell Hinds, was thenforced to stay back for surgery to his nose after being hit by a shortdelivery from former West Indies fast bowler Joel Garner in a festival matchon Sunday. He is, however, expected to re-join the squad shortly.Jacobs, who was originally injured in a domestic one-day match, attended apre-tour training camp in Jamaica but was not able to participate fully innet sessions.Harper was unconcerned: “We’ve seen Ridley in the past operating withinjuries and it hasn’t affected his game one iota. He is the sort ofcharacter that once he has committed himself to going on tour, he will givehis all and I expect nothing less of him on this tour.”Lara’s injury is longstanding, stretching back over a year to the WestIndies tour of England. He played through series against Australia and SouthAfrica whilst suffering from the injury and was finally forced to pullout ofthe Zimbabwe tour in July.”Brian has had an injury which has plagued him for a while,” Harperadmitted, but added, “The doctors feel that it is an injury that can bemanaged and should not really inhibit him providing he follows the propermanagement and rehabilitation programme set out for him. We expect thathe’ll be able to perform very close to his best on this tour.”The West Indies arrived in Sri Lanka on Thursday morning where they are dueto play three Test matches and a tri-series also involving Zimbabwe. SriLanka have only played three Test matches against West Indies in their 111Test match history.Full West Indies squad:Carl Hooper (captain), Ridley Jacobs (vice-captain), Chris Gayle, DarenGanga, Brian Lara, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Marlon Samuels, Wavell Hinds, LeonGarrick, Neil McGarrell, Dinanath Ramnarine, Colin Stuart, Mervyn Dillon,Marlon Black, Reon King, Pedro Collins. Ricky Skerritt (manager), RogerHarper (coach), Ronald Rogers (sports therapist).