Colin Croft profiles the West Indian tourists in Australia

Since becoming captain, Adams's favourite statement is that "he would like to see consistent cricket from his team." If that does not happen soon, and Adams continues to produce mediocrity (as was the case in the U.K) from both himself and his players, the West Indies could have another captain come 2001. The tour to Australia could be the rebirth, or maybe the loss, of Jimmy Adams as captain.

Adams was made captain for the new millennium, replacing his great friend, Brian Lara, after the debacle of New Zealand. Adams enjoyed a successful start to his captaincy. He featured in the final wicket partnership, with Courtney Walsh, to beat Pakistan in Antigua last May that won the game and the series.

However, in the United Kingdom, Adams had a rather bad time, never seeming to inspire his players to continuous successes and consistent play. His captaincy seemed reactive, instead of pace setting and innovative.

Still averaging 43.98 from his 49 Tests, with six centuries, there was a time, not so long ago, when the left-hander was rated No. 1 in the Test batting world, with an average of over 100. His batting has suffered from a curious lack of form and overall productivity, and more importantly, a change in appearance and approach.

Within 150 of getting to 3000 Test runs, his batting and especially his leadership, will have to attain a higher level if the West Indies are to destroy the myth, more like fact, that they can only win at home. The team has not won a series overseas for over three years. Many Caribbean people are becoming impatient with the lack of overseas success. This tough tour of Australia could well be the make or break of Jimmy Adams, in any cricketing capacity.

Adams is still one of the best fieldsmen in the West Indies cricket team, at any position, but it will be for his production, both as batsman and as captain, that he will be judged. Australia could well be his Waterloo.

The West Indies needs great starts from its opening batsmen as never before. With the Australian fast bowlers champing at the bit, Campbell will have to take his responsibilities, both as the vice-captain and the senior opener, very seriously. In the United Kingdom Campbell seemed to accept the responsibility that goes with the vice-captaincy.

Campbell's batting remains competent, if not spectacular, but also patchy. With 2669 runs from his 46 Tests so far, including 4 centuries and sixteen 50's, averaging 34.66, Campbell will have to find a way to convert those normally good starts to large totals, centuries even. His continued presence at the crease will directly affect the totals that the West Indies reach in Australia.

Hooking and cutting, exciting shots when played well, have been the normal downfall of Campbell at the crease. With the ball expected to bounce a bit more in Australia, Campbell will have to adjust his stroke-play, his patience and especially his shot selection, if he will be of any use to the West Indian cause.

This tall, angular fast bowler could well become the surprise tourist to the Antipodes. At 25 years old, Black has visibly grown in stature over the last year, gaining weight, strength, aggression and especially fitness to go with his bounding energy. He is bowling as quickly as anyone is in the Caribbean, including Nixon McLean. If he remains fit, the tour to Australia could really get Black to the correct levels to be an emerging factor for the West Indies. While obviously not as talented as 1975's debutante, Michael Holding, Black at least has Holding's history to reflect on and, maybe even try to repeat.

Black has been in the Trinidad & Tobago senior team intermittently, but has not fully secured a place until 2000. Then he played against the touring South African 'A' team late in 2000, impressing all with his surprising pace.

While he will relish the bouncy Australian pitches, Black will have to be told quickly that he still needs to keep deliveries on a good length, as Australians are very adept at 'leaving the ball'. Black, though, seems to have discovered some of the aggression that makes a good fast bowler. This will be a great learning experience for him and, with consistent performances, he could work his way into being a regular fast bowler, not only on the tour of Australia, but for some time in the future.

Having not toured with a West Indies 'A' team, Black will not be accustomed to the rigours of international touring, and will be enthusiastic. Again, he must be warned to curb this enthusiasm with common sense. 'Longevity' is the watchword for any good fast bowler, so full fitness is paramount. Given the right attitude, fitness and commitment, this young, fast bowler could provide some fire works.

Courtney Browne could have been selected as the team's second wicket-keeper because his batting is very acceptable. In a team whose batting has been very suspect, a wicket-keeper that could bat is a requirement, not a luxury. However, while he has been 'keeping well lately, Brown has never conveyed real confidence to the West Indies supporters.

Many remember him as the man who allowed Steve Waugh to reach that colossal 200 at Sabina Park, Jamaica, in 1995. Brown, in his first Test, dropped a 'sitter' when Waugh was less that 50 not out. That catch cost the West Indies dearly. They had not lost a Test series at home for over 20 years before that catch was dropped. The Australians went on to win the game and the series.

There have also been queries about the fact that Browne is 30 years old. With the senior wicket-keeper, Ridley Jacobs, already 33, there have been questions as to why the second wicket-keeper could not be a younger man; someone for the future.

With only two 'real' opening batsmen in the team (Campbell and Ganga) there have been suggestions that Browne could be used as an opening batsman. With a batting average of only 17.85 from his 13 Tests, Browne does not seem to have many credentials to be considered such, but these are desperate times in West Indies cricket.

In the Caribbean recently, Browne has been keeping well. He will need to keep this form, as the tour of Australia will be tough, and his services, both as a wicket-keeper and a batsman, could be extremely important.

This tour to Australia is a very important one for Shivnarine Chanderpaul too. He featured marginally against England, suffering from an elbow injury that curtailed his participation. His batting services were missed.

Chanderpaul hit the headlines in 1994, when, as a 19 year-old debutant, he hit a half-century against England on his home ground, Bourda, Guyana. So far, he has played in 44 Tests, scoring 2606 runs at an average of 40.03. If the West Indies are going to be competitive in Australia, Chanderpaul, along with other left-handed batsmen Brian Lara and Wavell Hinds, will have to be extremely competent and productive.

Lately, it has been suggested that Chanderpaul needs to 'up his resilience' in both physical fitness and psychological agility. Many have suggested that for an international sportsman, he has become too 'soft,' losing the intensity that had carried him to Test cricket. He will have to get over the recent past, that of injuries and indecision, to regain the confidence he exuded in the earlier part of his career, to be effective.

It will be necessary for Chanderpaul, like Sherwin Campbell, to convert his good starts into centuries. While he has only two centuries in Test cricket, at least he has been consistent, having scored twenty 50's so far.

Having gained weight, and hopefully some strength, Chanderpaul had to go through a very rigorous fitness Test at the team's camp in Jamaica before embarking on the tour of Australia. His fielding is excellent, but it will be more for his batting and renowned concentration, that Chanderpaul will be needed on this tour.

Merve Dillon could well suggest that he was given a hard deal on the England tour earlier this year. If he's honest though, he'll admit that he did not always use the opportunities afforded him to his advantage.

Certainly Dillon is more mature now. At 26 he is arriving at the age where his body and mind should be stronger, ready and relaxed. He has recently married.

Dillon, with the loss of Curtly Ambrose due of retirement, could be considered the 'second' fast bowler, after Courtney Walsh, in this touring team, Nixon McLean notwithstanding. Yet, with seven Test matches to his name so far, and only 21 wickets at an ordinary average of 35.33, Dillon has a lot of work to do to cement his place in the West Indies team.

Tall and rangy, Dillon has grown fitter over the last year. He normally gets the ball to bounce even on docile Caribbean pitches. He will enjoy the extra bounce of the Australian pitches, but must be careful not to get carried away with it, sacrificing his normal consistency.

However, he must remember that he is a fast bowler. While a normally good fast bowler, recently Dillon has not seemed to be trying as hard as he should, allowing himself to lapse into complacency, and not putting as much energy into his game.

Dillon's batting, for a fast bowler, is good. He could become an Andy Roberts typebowling all-rounder if he took his batting seriously. Especially in the one-day series, that could be very useful. Overall, this is a very important opportunity for this tall man from Toco, Eastern Trinidad.

Darren Ganga, hopefully, will have benefited from his recent month-long visit to the renowned Australian Cricket Academy. Hopefully, he will have learned that cricket, especially Test cricket, is a tough business.

Ganga is the second of two specialist openers on this tour, the other being Sherwin Campbell. This suggests that there will be great pressures and responsibility on the shoulders of the young man.

From the reports gleaned from the Australian Cricket Academy, Ganga and another promising youngster, Ramnaresh Sarwan, have been very impressive while in Australia. Also, at the camp in Jamaica just before the tour started, Ganga was the only batsman who looked to be in fine form. Only time will tell if these experiences will be converted to success on the international field of play in Australia.

For someone with such responsibilities on his shoulders, Ganga's credentials are not that impressive, the selectors preferring to invest in hope and potential rather than performances. To date, Ganga has only managed 75 runs in his four Test matches, averaging a meagre 12.50 runs. While it can be argued that he was injured on his last two overseas tours, he will have to up his game considerably to command the place that has been literally given to him; opening batsman for the West Indies.

This is going to be a tough exposure to the batsman considered as possessing the best technique of all of the West Indians, including Sarwan. With some success on this tour, however, Ganga could become a senior batsman with a long future.

This left hander is a very talented cricketer, despite his less than superlative efforts on the tour of the United Kingdom. After starting creditably, his confidence, and hence his production, were shot when he received three verifiably bad decisions in succession against England. However, he's still in the youth of his career, and he could continue the rich vein of success he had against the Zimbabweans and the Pakistanis earlier this year.

Batting at No. 3 is perhaps the hardest position for a batsman, since he is then supposed to be the fulcrum between the openers and the middle order. In some forums, it is also suggested that the No. 3 batsman should be the team's best batsman. While Hinds could not lay claim to that position yet (when fit Brian Lara and Shivnarine Chanderpaul are ahead at this time) one could suggest that it might not be too long before Hinds could emulate his more illustrious left-handed team-mates.

After 10 Tests, Hinds has 556 runs, with an acceptable average of 34.75. Considering that he hit a century in his first season of Test cricket, he has deteriorated somewhat.

Great toughness is a qualification to playing good international cricket, so Hinds will have to toughen up quickly in Australia. The disdain with which he dispatched the bowlers of Zimbabwe and Pakistan, and the sometime arrogance he showed in England, will have to be tempered if he is to be successful in Australia. While it is good to be cocky, it can sometimes translate to stupidity.

Hinds has all the positive shots of a left-hander: the square drive and the pull being his favourites. His movement is fluid and quick, which will be necessary in Australia. If he gets going not only will the Aussies be in trouble, but it will mean that the West Indies middle order of Lara, Chanderpaul, Sarwan and Adams, will be able to plan their own game around him. If there is one cricketer who should be sufficiently mature at the end of the Australian tour, it should be Wavell Hinds. It is all in his hands now.

Ridley Jacobs continues to be a very competent behind the stumps, having already taken 75 catches, plus three stumpings.

As the premier wicket-keeper, though, he lost some of his gloss towards the end of the English tour, confirming the West Indies selectors' folly of not including a continuous second wicket-keeper. On recent evidence, the 2000 Red Stripe Bowl, Courtney Browne, is 'keeping better than Jacobs, but Jacobs will always be first choice because of his superior batting.

At 33, he probably has another 3-5 years left in his career. However, it would help the West Indies if he returned to the batting form he showed on his debut in South Africa in 1998. Normally a clean hitter of the ball, Jacobs' efforts in England were mediocre. Overall, after 21 Test matches, he has 703 runs, at an average of 22.67. That must improve.

At least Jacobs seems to have worked on his fitness, appearing rather small before leaving the Caribbean for the tour of Australia. The West Indies will be pleased if his concentration and agility are also sharpened.

Kerry Jeremy could also surprise some cricket watchers in Australia, but for curious reasons. He will find life harder than, for example, Marlon Black. While Black is taller, gaining more pace and bounce, Jeremy, the medium-fast bowler, depends on longevity and determination for his wickets. He is not quick at all by the standards of the West Indian fast bowlers.

His selection was a surprise, but if one goes by statistics, he deserves it. Earlier this year, playing for the West Indies Cricket Board XI and the West Indies President's XI against Zimbabwe, Jeremy got two five wicket hauls in the two games. He never really dominated the batsmen, preferring to toil for long periods for his wickets. He also did well when the South African 'A' team visited the Caribbean a few months ago.

Jeremy's type of bowling could be useful for the long haul, and it was even suggested by the West Indian selectors that he has been selected to "cover" for the veteran Courtney Walsh. At least, their batting skills are on par!

Even without the match-fixing situation to bother about, this tour of Australia is still going to be tough for Brian Lara. His high production batsmanship will be necessary if the West Indies are to make headway in this series.

Lara is still the best batsman in the Caribbean. His 70 Test matches have so far yielded 5,812 runs, at an average of 49.67, so he is averaging with the 'greats' not just the 'good.'

The last year has been a very tough one for Lara. His cricket was interrupted by the illness of his mum, while his own health, especially his eyes, needs, in his own words, "some specialist treatment."

There was some doubt whether Lara would tour England earlier this year, but he knew that a tour of England would rejuvenate his cricketing fortunes, which were dented when he captained the team to New Zealand.

Lara seems to be very much at peace with himself now, and had it not been for the new pressure of the CBI report, he would not have had anything else to worry about except cricket. How this new situation affects his cricket remains to be seen.

Lara, Chanderpaul, Hinds and Adams, all left-handers, and Ramnaresh Sarwan, a right-hander, make up the middle order of the West Indies batting line-up. Lara is still expected to lead them all. At least he will not have to fend off Shane Warne, the Australian champion leg-spinner, who is injured. That does not mean that the Australian bowlers, led by Glen McGrath and Brett Lee, will not still be a handful.

With 14 centuries, and 30 half centuries to his name, Lara will have to add several innings of the three-figured kind to help his team in this important series. Many believe that the 'best of Brian' has gone. He would like to prove them all wrong.

After 12 Tests and only 29 wickets to show for them (average of 40.03), McLean is still trying to find his place in the West Indies cricket team. By rights, after Courtney Walsh, he is the most experienced fast bowler, and should be No. 2 fast in the ranks. That just goes to show how great the divide is. Walsh has 122 Test matches under his belt, and 483 wickets.

McLean needs to understand a few things about fast bowling. The first is that he is a fast bowler, not some medium paced trundler. Especially in Australia, where they 'eat up' medium pacers, McLean will have to be as pacy as he can be, if he is going to be effective. While he gets the ball to move both in the air and from the ground, the deliveries are sometimes so wayward that there is no effectiveness.

After being left out of the Test team initially in England, McLean did play in the latter few matches of that series, and held his own without being either explosive or successful. Like Dillon, Black, Jeremy and Stuart, Mc Lean, who is a good lower order batsman, will have to work very hard in all areas of his game to achieve the successes his team needs in Australia.

The lone recognized spinner in the West Indian touring party, Nagamootoo is similar to Ridley Jacobs, in a sense. He is in the squad as a leg-spinner, but normally is selected because his excellent late order batting lends some stability to the tail.

His only Test appearance has yielded 31 runs and three wickets, but there are those who suggest that Nagamootoo could develop into a good all-rounder if he were to take his cricket, especially his ultra-aggressive battings, as seriously as his bowling. At least his fielding is superlative, and he will be a great asset for the one-day teams.

It is conceivable that Nagamootoo will be preferred to one of the fast bowlers in the four-bowler Test attack. More like Anil Kumble than Shane Warne in speed through the air and turn, it is also suggested that the Australians, who have grown up on right arm leg-spinners, will have little trouble with Nagamootoo. We shall see.

Sarwan is easily the best thing to have happened to the West Indies team in the new millennium. He has played in only five Test matches, with a total of 274 runs and a good average of 45.66. However, it has been his poise, the class and confidence visible, that has mesmerized even the greatest critics of West Indian cricket.

Likened to another great former West Indian right hander, and countryman, Rohan Kanhai, Sarwan has shown that if he continues with the temperament and classical mould that he now possesses, there will be no greater star in the West Indian firmament in the immediate future.

Strangely, for a West Indian middle-order batsman, Sarwan is right-handed, contrasting with the other four, much more senior, left-handed middle-order batsmen. Yet this young man outshone them all in the few game he has played so far for the West Indies.

Another of those who has been fortunate to have had a recent stint at the Australian Cricket Academy, the reports have been absolutely wonderful on this tremendously talented young man.

If there is any hope for the West Indies, not only in this Australian Test series, but also for the future, it must lie with Ramnaresh Sarwan. Always eager to learn, no one takes his cricket more seriously, yet the poise and class of one so young is astounding. While every West Indian hopes that Sarwan continues to be a successful batsman, it is for his overall cricketing attitude that he should be used as an example for the others to follow. Much will be put on those small shoulders. Much will be expected.

The Guyanese fast bowler is tremendously unfortunate, but also determined. Twice in the recent few years he has been on the verge of breaking into the West Indies senior ranks, only to be robbed by injuries to his back and to his arm. Ironically, the last time he was ear-marked for higher service, his left arm was broken by a delivery hurled down by Cameron Cuffy, of the Windward Islands, another fast bowler trying to regain his Test place.

Stuart's bowling efforts suggest, like Kerry Jeremy, that he would be well placed in English County Cricket, where the need to keep the ball on a good length and line are vital.

Quicker and fitter that he has ever been, Stuart is just pleased to be playing cricket. However, no one should take his determination lightly. He has shown earlier this year, against South Africa 'A' that, with the right breaks (forget the pun, please), he could be a better bet for continued, regular success than the fast bowler he is replacing, compatriot Reon King. King might be faster and perhaps, overall, better, but no West Indian fast bowler in 2000 is more 'honest' with his efforts, except the incomparable Courtney Walsh.

Rather flat-footed in delivery, running through the crease instead of the usual 'jump and deliver' style, Stuart skids deliveries into right-handed batsmen, then sometimes manages to get a few to move away. His style may hurry the Australian batsmen a bit more than, say, Merve Dillon, who depends on 'bounce' more than 'skid'. Having not yet played a Test match, Stuart could feature well for the West Indies in the one-day games. His batting is so poor that he will have to bowl exceptionally well to maintain his place for international games. Good luck to him.

'Cuddy' played his first Test at Perth in 1984/85. It is very conceivable that he could play his last at Sydney early next year. However, anyone who is willing to take a wager on that happening is foolish. Walsh has been written off at least seven times in the last 15 years or so, only to recover, become even better, and still hold the mantle as the best West Indies fast bowler. For all that we know he could still be playing for the West Indies when the next millennium begins!

What more can one say about Courtney Walsh, except that he is a 'freak,' one in a lifetime, having already bowled 4,541 overs already in Test cricket alone. He needs 17 more wickets to get to an unprecedented 500 Test wickets, yet, after 122 Test matches so far, Walsh is still learning new tricks to go with his miserly run-per wicket average of 24.24.

Just ask Graeme Thorpe. He was lbw twice (once actually 'walking') to deliveries of such slower pace that the batsman never even played at them. At 38, Walsh had discovered the perfect slower ball.

There has been much ado about the loss of his great friend and ally, Curtly Ambrose. There will be more Test match work for Walsh so he will probably play few games on this tour apart from Test matches.

Yet Walsh will still have the responsibilities of nurturing, leading and cultivating the younger fast bowlers, and also of leading the attack to the Australian batsmen. Being an exceptional fast bowler, Walsh will never give up. His fitness will have to last, and though he is expected to achieve 500 Test wickets, he will be more interested in helping the West Indies beat Australia. There could yet be one last hurrah in the aging legs of the world's longevity and wicket-taking champion.