BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC:
FORMER WEST Indies cricket captain Carl Hooper left the Caribbean Tuesday evening for England, eager to play cricket for Lancashire in the English County Championship.
Hooper is set to sign a temporary contract with Lancashire as cover for injured Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh and conceded he is thirsty for competitive cricket.
"Right now I just want to play some cricket, I haven't played for just about a month now, and I'm desperate to get back," Hooper told CBC Television while in transit at the Grantley Adams International Airport Tuesday afternoon.
"I am excited about going to play some cricket and I hope things go well," said Hooper, who was replaced as West Indies captain ahead of the current Cable & Wireless series against Australia.
He had led the West Indies team a few weeks earlier to an unsuccessful World Cup outing exiting at the first round stage.
The 36-year-old Hooper is expected to spend five weeks at Lancashire, holding the overseas player's spot while Singh recovers from a finger injury he suffered during a recent One-day tournament in Bangladesh.
Hooper withdrew from the West Indies team to face Australia only three days before the first Test in Guyana, saying he came to that "difficult" decision" given the recent developments" and the "new direction in which the team will now head".
In the meantime, he has reiterated his position that he has not retired and remains eager to play cricket at any level.
"I haven't retired, I want to play cricket, whether it's at the Test level, first-class level, playing for Guyana, it doesn't really matter, I just want to play some cricket," said Hooper, who could appear for Lancashire as early as Friday, when they take on Middlesex at Lord's.
Hooper's arrival is a timely boost as Lancashire have been laid low by a flu bug which has left them struggling to field a side. Hooper had a previous county career at Kent where he played last in 1998 scoring 1,218 runs in the Championship, including six hundreds, and taking 31 wickets.
