BY PAUL A REID

Observer writer

MONTEGO BAY, St James — It was a disappointed group of five players and two officials of the West Indies Under-19 cricket team that returned to the island on Wednesday night after their seven-match tour of Bangladesh was cut short due to civil unrest in the Asian country.

The 15-member-strong regional squad preparing for the ICC Under-19 World Cup in Dubai in February had played just one of seven One-Day matches when the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) took the decision, following investigations, to call the players and officials home.

The officials and players returning to the island and who flew into Montego Bay from London were coach Robert Samuels, manager Altamont Solomon and players including team captain Ramaal Lewis, Marquino Mindley, Tristann Coleman, Brandon King and Fabian Allen.

The party was met at the airport by president of the St James Cricket Association and director of the Jamaica Cricket Association Cecil Fletcher and executive member Jerry Reid.

Samuels told the Observer that the disruption, caused mainly after an explosion was heard near to the team’s hotel, was a big setback to their preparations.

“It was very disappointing that we went to Bangladesh for a seven-match series and only played one,” Samuels said. “So truly it has set back the programme a great deal because to go to a World Cup you need as much preparation time as possible and this has taken away a lot of the preparation time.”

The West Indies team had won a warm-up game against the Bangladesh Cricket Board’s Invitational XI before losing to Bangladesh by 104 runs in Chittagong last week Friday.

The former Jamaica and West Indies left-handed opener said they had no control over what was going on.

“Things were beyond our control, we can only do what we can do, and the tour had to be cut short and we are now home.

“The WICB did their investigations and took the decisions to cut the tour short,” the obviously disappointed coach said.

He said that while he personally had not heard the explosions, some players did and this affected them badly.

“The boys heard the explosion, I did not hear it, and mentally they were affected badly by it, that is how we were affected, mentally more than anything else and they are boys and we have to answer to their parents, so we did not want to take any chances and [we] took every precaution that we could to ensure their safety,” the former Jamaican skipper said.

With vital preparation cut short, he is looking ahead.

“Hopefully we will have some dialogue with the WICB and hopefully we will find a way sometime in January to get those matches we missed played somewhere in the Caribbean or wherever else.”

Samuels said usually there would be a pre-World Cup camp in Barbados and now that the tour had to be cancelled, that camp might be expanded.

Lewis echoed the sentiments of his coach in expressing his disappointment.

“We are very disappointed, here we were getting prepared for the World Cup and hoping to get in some games and get ourselves prepared and to see where we were at, so we are disappointed,” the St Elizabeth Technical High School player told the Observer.

Lewis was however hopeful they would be allowed to continue to prepare for the tournament that starts on February 5.