'Have you seen the news?'

A text message landed at 1am – I never turn my phone off, it’s a bad habit – and it simply said. “Have you seen the news?” A couple more messages and quick flick onto CNN revealed what it was all about.

Even thousands of miles away in Barbados the ripple effect of the terror attack on the Sri Lanka team was being felt. One person had reason to feel very closely effected as Stuart Broad’s father, Chris, was in one of the mini-buses attacked.

In the hotel lobby the news channel was on and it was all people wanted to talk about over breakfast. Nobody was discussing the run-feast at the Kensington Oval. By mid-morning both boards had issued statements.

In the airport departure lounge both squads and their officials were waiting for their flight to Trinidad. I spoke to one WICB board member about the morning’s events and the consequences were already clear in his mind. Some of the players waiting by the gates had also toured Pakistan at one time or another. Those who haven’t won’t be going any time soon.

But it doesn’t seem quite right to say too much about events so far away, other than to try and show how the impact is global.

*****

This series goes on as normal and we are now in Trinidad ahead of the final Test. I had to have a little smile when I found out the team’s charter flight had been delayed. They were due to leave around 10am, but both squads were sat with ipods on and laptops out trying to kill time, while their plane was stuck in Port of Spain. So much for avoiding the travel hassles.

Mine was a simple trip via Grenada and the fourth and final island on my journey provides another host of experiences. The first thing to strike you is the extra humidity; it really does feel quite tropical helped by the lush, green forests that cover the hills.

My guest house is set in the hills just north of Port of Spain and the journey from the airport took us past the Queen’s Park Savannah where a number of cricket games were starting, a slightly less packed version of the maidans in Mumbai.

A notable factor is the traffic. There is so much of it. I was warned about the jams before arriving and they didn’t disappoint. The other thing that stood out was the four-lane highway, because it’s the first road wider than two lanes I’ve seen in a month. Perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise that roads are bigger here – Trinidad’s south-west coast is home to the world's largest natural reservoir of asphalt.

And they are building more, with an unfinished on-ramp curving over the carriage way at one point, bringing to mind that scene from Speed where Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves leap the gap in a bus. Don’t think I’ll be trying anything so dramatic, although it might be a good way to beat the traffic.