Security, injuries concern WI

Skerritt... expects full security briefing and Hooper... targeting Muralitharan.

COLOMBO, (Reuters):

SECURITY, INJURIES and Muttiah Muralitharan were the main worries for West Indies as they arrived in Sri Lanka yesterday for their first full tour of the troubled island.

The tourists expect off-spinner Muralitharan to be their main threat on the pitch, but security concerns are likely to dominate the build-up to the three-Test series.

Sri Lanka is already in the throes of a violent campaign for elections on December 5, and bracing itself for more suicide bombings by a Tamil rebel group.

"We will get a full security briefing in the next few hours and make our plans after that," Windies manager Ricky Skerrit told reporters at the team's tightly-guarded hotel in Colombo.

"Obviously we are concerned but we are quite satisfied with the arrangements made."

A suicide bombing, which killed five people in Colombo on Monday, has done little to ease the concerns of the tourists, who had already been wary of travelling since the September 11 attacks on the United States.

West Indies opted out of playing Sri Lanka on home turf in the 1996 World Cup after a major bomb attack killed 100 people.

The injury worries revolve around batsman Brian Lara, who opted to travel despite concerns over his long-standing hamstring injury.

The tourists cannot afford any more fitness scares, with middle-order anchor Shivnarine Chanderpaul ruled out of the tour with a back injury and his replacement Wavell Hinds expected to arrive late after undergoing surgery on a broken nose.

With captain Carl Hooper and Lara the only survivors of the previous tour - a single Test in 1993 - the inexperienced Windies batting lineup could be exposed by Muralitharan's prodigious turn.

"Muralitharan is a world-class player and will be the main focus of our strategy," Hooper said.

The tourists' bowling attack also looks green with none of the pacemen having yet played 20 tests.

After the Test series, West Indies join Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in a triangular one-day tournament.

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