THE ear piercing shriek that rent the clear morning air and the eerie whine of an ambulance's siren that soon followed were clear signs that the ill starred West Indies tour of Sri Lanka would be hexed to the very end.

The thirteen Sri Lankans on the field and the 8,000 or so in the ground, the largest crowd at any match to date, knew it.

More pertinently, Brian Lara's teammates in the dressing room knew that their extraordinary standard bearer was in serious distress.

They could sense that his tour was certainly over and that he wouldn't be in the field for today's match against Zimbabwe that would decide Sri Lanka's opponents in Wednesday's final of the LG Abans triangular tournament and for some time after that as well.

Lara, 24 at the time in the penultimate match of the series, lay in a heap under the Sri Lankan fielder Marvan Atapattu at the bowler's end, holding his left arm and writhing in pain with a brief but frantic wave for help.

The two, each with an opposite purpose, collided as they dived towards the bowler's stumps on Lara's scrambled single into the off side from a no ball.

They clashed as Lara threw himself towards the bowler's crease and Atapattu towards the ball and the Sri Lankan vice captain landed heavily, and accidentally, on Lara's left arm.

In a jiffy, and to general silence, the suffering Lara was surrounded by eleven concerned Sri Lankan cricketers, his partner Daren Ganga and two umpires as the physiotherapists of both teams, Ronald Rogers of the West Indies and Alex Kountori, came sprinting to the scene.

A couple of local doctors followed. Minutes later, first aid attendants hastening West Indies' cricket's most valuable player, and one of the contemporary game's few stars, on a stretcher to the waiting ambulance and a light flashing journey through the crowded streets of this busy town to nearby Kandy General Hospital.

Team manager Ricky Skerritt, who has had a turbulent time since his appointment in February 2000, was quick to join the trip to see after his charge.

Once there, Lara was immediately placed under general anaesthesia by the resident surgeon whose examination, happily, revealed a somewhat less gloomy report than had been first feared.

Meanwhile, back at the Asgiriya Ground, the West Indies, already decimated by the loss of five players on tour for a variety of reasons, were struggling to make a match of it.

Not surprisingly, they failed.

Long before the inevitable end, as Sri Lanka coasted to victory by eight wickets with as many as 6.5 overs remaining, they seemed distracted, their focus diverted from the job at hand, their thoughts perhaps on what, or who, would be next.

For the locals, it further strengthened their dark suspicions of the Asgirya ground, overlooked by the Buddihist monastery that gives it its name, as a cursed ground.

Until this tour, Sri Lanka's record there was unpropitious. It was also where Australia's captain Steve Waugh and fast bowler Jason Gillespie seriously injured themselves in a crash going for an outfield catch two years ago.

After their losses in the Test and yesterday, the West Indies can accept the theory.