England cricket team on high alert after fatal shooting outside Trinidad hotel

England’s players have been sequestered in their Port of Spain hotel after a man was shot dead yards from the front door of the building during their first night in Trinidad.

The England and Wales Cricket Board’s security staff had already advised the players not to leave the Hyatt Regency except for their two scheduled matches, a prearranged round of golf and a single training session on Monday morning.

But the severity of the threat was illustrated when a 47-year-old man was murdered at around 1.20am on Monday on Wrightson Road, where the hotel is located.

Trinidad and Tobago has experienced a massive spike in gun crime in recent years, and according to latest statistics it has the world’s sixth-highest crime rate and ranks 11th for gun deaths per capita.

The British government’s travel advice for Trinidad states that “there is a high level of violent crime” with “gang-related attacks and shootings increasing around the city centre of Port of Spain”.

Amid difficult circumstances, the England players need to turn their attention to on-pitch matters and, in that regard, while they may be 2-1 down in their Twenty20 series against West Indies as they head into the penultimate game on Tuesday, Liam Livingstone believes the team have “taken a big step forward” in the Caribbean and proved they are “as good as any team in the world” when playing to their strengths. (The Guardian)