World Cup teams skip immigration and escape media scrum

FRIGATE BAY, St Kitts, Mar 13 (Reuters) Secrecy and tight security cloaked the arrival of four World Cup Group A squads in St Kitts.

Champions Australians, top-ranked South Africans and minnows Scotland and the Netherlands all touched down on the small eastern Caribbean island on one flight at 1930 local time (0500 hrs IST).

The players were whisked off the airport runway in buses and, without passing through immigration, ferried to their hotel.

Staff at the hotel where all the squads are staying, the St Kitts Marriott Resort, refused to give waiting reporters any details on their famous guests' arrangements.

''We're operating on a need-to-know basis, that's all I can say,'' was all that security guard Bevern Huggins would tell Reuters.

'NO BLINDFOLDS' ''To be honest, we weren't quite sure where we were being taken to or where we going,'' South African manager Mickey Arthur told reporters later yesterday.

''But there were no blindfolds and no secret passwords either.'' Other guests at the hotel watched with bemused bewilderment as the players and their partners swept into the complex.

''I know nothing about cricket, but I'm pleased that I'm bolting out of here in two days' time,'' Alex Spoov of Miami, Florida, told Reuters.

Fellow guest Brian Simons of Fort Myers, Florida, thought the added security amounted to overkill.

''You probably need more security at a Nascar race, where the crowd gets pretty rough and rowdy, than you need to take care of this,'' Simons told Reuters.

''Cricket is an elitist, genteel game, isn't it?'' Reuters AD VP0700