Indian squad arrives, welcomed by bus break down

Port of Spain, Trinidad, Mar 13 (UNI) The 15-member Indian World Cup squad arrived here last evening to a warm reception by enthusiastic cricket fans and local organisers.

The Rahul Dravid-led side touched down at the Piarco International Airport at 5.45 pm local time (early hours today in India) along with team members of Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Bermuda who are placed along with India in Group B in the preliminary round.

They were received by local organising committee officials, headed by cricket operations manager Ann Browne-John and communications and marketing manager Penny Chow.

In a minor hiccup, the bus carrying the Indian contingent broke down on the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway in the vicinity of El Socorro Junction on way to the Hilton Trinidad Hotel in St Ann's, where the four visiting teams will stay during the preliminary round.

Upon passing the El Socorro traffic lights, one of the three buses -- two occupied by members of the India team and an empty contingency bus from the airport -- broke down, forcing the police escort to stop the convoy and block off the area before the players were offloaded and relocated to the back-up bus.

The second bus carrying the majority of the Indian players continued on its way to the team hotel.

All the Group B matches will be played at the newly refurbished Queen's Park Oval ground. The first match of the group is slated on March 15 between Sri Lanka and Bermuda while India opened their World Cup campaign on March 17 against Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, security at Hilton Trinidad has been beefed up to prevent any reocurrence of incidents like the gas leak on March 7 which led to evacuation of players and officials from South Africa, Pakistan, Ireland and Canada who were put up there for warm-up games.

India has been allotted Sir Frank Worrell ground at the University of West Indies for net practice sessions along with Bermuda while Sri Lanka and Bangladesh will train at the National Cricket Centre in Balmain.

UNI