West Indies left in the cold

West Indies may have had a reasonable start to their tour of England results-wise (the hiccup against Ireland notwithstanding) but, according to a report on a Caribbean website, they didn't receive the warmest of welcomes to the UK.

According to CaribbeanCricket.com, no-one from the ECB turned up to welcome them after they had touched down at Belfast airport, and they had to collect their luggage for themselves. Once outside the airport, there was no transport arranged to take them to their hotel, and they had to hang around for over an hour before a coach arrived to pick them up.

Things were then made worse the following week when their coach journey to a warm-up match in Kent was caught up in heavy traffic following a road accident. The bus was not given a police escort to get them to the game on time, something which, the article claimed, would have happened for a touring side in the Caribbean.

In response to the article, Andrew Walpole, the ECB's media relations officer, said that both boards had jointly agreed there would be no press conference on the West Indians' arrival at Belfast, hence the ECB didn't send anyone there to meet them.

Tony Howard, the West Indies team manager, refused to comment on the report, adding that the team were totally focussed on the NatWest Series. West Indies' first game of the tournament is against New Zealand at Edgbaston on Saturday, June 26.