da prosport bet： Two Barbadian cricket personalities who have recentlyvisited Sri Lanka have no worries over safety in thepolitically volatile country which is preparing forparliamentary elections
Haydn Gill29-Oct-2001Two Barbadian cricket personalities who have recentlyvisited Sri Lanka have no worries over safety in thepolitically volatile country which is preparing forparliamentary elections.They are Cammie Smith, an experienced and respectedInternational Cricket Council (ICC) match referee, and RyleStuart, a seasoned cameraman for international televisionnetworks.Their comments came against the background of recentconcerns by West Indian officials and players ahead of theirtour of Sri Lanka starting at the weekend. Concerns werealso raised in light of the United States’ military strikeson Afghanistan following the September 11 terrorist attackson the United States.I have no fears whatsoever, Smith told NATIONSPORT. I havebeen to Sri Lanka six times and I would have no difficultyin going back again.He said a lot of people were not aware that Sri Lanka andAfghanistan were not within close proximity, and he reckonedthe election, set for December 5, was moreso of an internalmatter.Sri Lanka is not near Afghanistan to start with. People seemto think it is very close. It isn’t, he said. With theelections, it is the Tamils against the people in the south,and the Tamils are not targeting tourists and sportspeople.It is an internal matter with the government.Both Smith and Stuart were in Sri Lanka in July when anairbase there was bombed, but according to them, life wenton as usual.Cricket went on without anyone even thinking about securitymatters, Stuart said. There was a strong police presence atcricket and the teams were escorted by police.It was Stuart’s first trip to Sri Lanka and he may return towork during the forthcoming tour. Arrangements, however, areyet to be finalised for television coverage, mainly becauseof a problem between the Board of Control for Cricket in SriLanka (BCCSL) and WSG Nimbus Pte. Limited.Stuart worked for WSG on his recent trip to Sri Lanka, butis also a regular for Trans World International, which maybe involved in the coverage of the forthcoming tour.I am not worried about security concerns, Stuart said. WhenI was there, I could walk the streets freely. I went hiking,I went to the beach and I went to the discos.There were one or two demonstrations, but nothing that thepolice could not handle.Smith, a former Barbados Cricket Association president andWest Indies batsman who played five Tests in the 1960s, wasalso in Sri Lanka in 1994 when a Test match had to becancelled because of elections. But, he added, there wasnothing to worry about.At a recent ICC meeting in Malaysia, West Indies CricketBoard president Wes Hall was given assurances from the BCCSLover the safety of the team, which will also havebodyguards.