Sarwan settles down to lead the challenge

Ramnaresh Sarwan: when West Indies require a man for a scrap, he will be the first in line © Getty Images

If you want - or indeed are forced by circumstances - to play with a bunch of pit-bull terriers, you need at least a little of the mongrel within you to hold your own.

Last time the West Indies were in South Africa they were swept aside 5-0 in the Test series, and then managed to win just one of seven one-day internationals. It was a puppyish performance, timid and insecure, and one that Brian Lara and his team are desperate to avoid this time around. Lara should know: he was captain of the side that whimpered its way home five years ago.

South African cricket teams have never been ones to roll over and have their bellies scratched. There has always been something of the rottweiler in their approach - never the prettiest, but salivating with aggressive intent, in-your-face and highly effective.

The Australians might have mastered the art of "mental disintegration", but the South Africans have their own version, and it demands their opponents bark back. Call it what you want, but steel, character and plain old chutzpah will be vital ingredients if the West Indians are to turn their fortunes in South Africa around.

Lara's flashing blade will be its own sword of destiny, and on current form it is hard to believe he will not score heavily. After all, he has a personal score to settle. But he will need to see eyes on fire, chests pumped and hairs bristling among his foot-soldiers too. And their commander-in-chief will be his deputy, Ramnaresh Sarwan.

When South Africa toured the Caribbean in 2001, Sarwan was still a boy. Jacques Kallis worked him out quickly, and twice goaded him into sacrificing a good, patient start by swinging impetuously at a short delivery. He just couldn't resist it. But he had fire in his eyes.

It was that attitude which so clearly riled Glenn McGrath, prompting his famous and embarrassing implosion in a shower of invective spat in Sarwan's direction during the Antigua Test last year, as Sarwan was moving to a magnificent hundred and taking the Test away from the Australians.

It was stirring stuff - but so is Sarwan's story. Andrew Hall may have dodged the bullets of a Johannesburg gunman and Dewald Pretorius survived a desperate childhood, but Sarwan's story also speaks volumes for the spirit he brings with him to the crease.

Before he left Guyana for the tour of England as 19-year-old nearly a year ago, Sarwan had been deeply in love with the girlfriend he first went out with when they were barely into their teens. They had, by all accounts, been inseparable. But Sarwan realised that his relationship caused worry and doubt among his peers and the hierarchy of West Indian cricket, and he was desperate not to jeopardise his budding international career. So he told his girlfriend that the relationship was off - it had to be.

In a moment of remarkable poignancy, the girl accepted her boyfriend's decision but asked - as a token of his past commitment - that he promise to come to her funeral one day. Sarwan promised. Before the end of the England tour the girl, who had been in perfect health, suddenly and unexpectedly died from an undetected virus. Sarwan left the tour and flew home to be at her funeral.

As he battled to come to terms with his raging emotions, Sarwan returned to international cricket vowing to make a success of himself in honour of his lost lady. He dedicated his career to her.

Of such rock is Sarwan hewn. When West Indies require a man for a scrap over the next few weeks, you can be sure he will be the first in line.