PORT-OF-SPAIN (Trinidad), Oct 31: West Indies arrive in Sri Lanka for their first full tour of the country Thursday with key batsman Brian Lara in the pack but the rest of the cards stacked firmly against them.

Carl Hooper’s inexperienced squad, due to play three Tests before taking part in a one-day tournament also involving Zimbabwe, have not had the best preparation.

Hooper and Lara will clearly be central figures for the touring side, who have just completed a week’s training camp in Jamaica under the supervision of former Test players Andy Roberts and Gordon Greenidge, as well as team coach Roger Harper.

Hooper and Lara, both nearing their hundredth Test caps, are the only players surviving from the short 1993 tour to Sri Lanka which featured the first Test encounter between the two teams.

Hooper’s captaincy and his new-found openness have been both revealing and refreshing but he will have to be much more of a father figure if his young charges are to beat Sri Lanka away.

While Hooper’s role at the centre of the batting order, as a veteran of 87 Tests and 4,699 runs, will be vital he could also, like his Sri Lankan counterpart Sanath Jayasuriya, contribute significantly with his spin bowling.

West Indies will have to hope that their younger generation of batsmen — Chris Gayle, Daren Ganga, Marlon Samuels and Ramnaresh Sarwan — start coming through.

There are even more concerns about the inexperience of the bowling attack, with none of the pacemen having yet played in 20 Tests.

Reon King and Mervyn Dillon are the most experienced, with 44 wickets from 14 Tests and 57 wickets from 16 respectively, but neither has ever fully convinced.

They will be backed up by Colin Stuart, Pedro Collins and Marlon Back, with a lone specialist spinner in Dinanath Ramnarine.

Sri Lanka have yet to win a test against West Indies. The two teams have only played three times, the inaugural game in 1993 followed by a two-match series in 1996-97.

Squad: Carl Hooper (captain), Ridley Jacobs (vice-captain), Chris Gayle, Daren Ganga, Brian Lara, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Marlon Samuels, Wavell Hinds, Leon Garrick, Neil McGarrell, Dinanath Ramnarine, Colin Stuart, Mervyn Dillon, Marlon Black, Reon King, Pedro Collins.—Reuters