Hooper: On Guard

The new West Indies captain had a few precautionary words for his West Indies team prior to the second Cable & Wireless Test against South Africa, starting at the Queen's Park Oval today.

Carl Hooper may have been away from the West Indies team for two years but he has followed their ups and downs sufficiently in that time to be wary of a letdown following the promising performance in the drawn first Test at Bourda.

We came out of Guyana with a lot of positives but we don't want to read too much into that game, he said. This will be different; different conditions, different pitch and a ground that usually produces results.

In addition, he pointed out, the South Africans had got a feel of the Caribbean and had a look at the new West Indies players they were seeing for the first time.

They're a good, strong side with all-round depth, so we've got to keep on improving, be prepared to work hard each and every day and, win or lose, be competitive and put up a good showing.

The teams will have to contend with a couple of worthwhile, but unprecedented, distractions.

The Test is the 50th at Queen's Park, which becomes the eighth ground in the world to have hosted that many. It has been officially titled The Golden Test.

A special ceremony before play, featuring Sir Everton Weekes and Curtly Ambrose, will mark the occasion and there will be other reminders of the landmark throughout the match.

There is, as well, the prospect that Courtney Walsh will take the four wickets he needs to become the first cricketer to reach 500 Test wickets, an astonishing feat for a fast bowler. He has had 49 of his 496 in Port-of-Spain so there could well be double celebrations for him.

As always on this ground, more than any other, the pitch will be the focal point.

Nowhere else has produced such vagaries, from one year to the next, from one day to the next and, even on occasion, one session to the next, as the Queen's Park.

The soil is not indigenous. Because of the mole cricket, the earth in north Trinidad is not conducive to pitch preparation and, until it was dug up and relaid with more manageable soil from the south of the country in 1954, all matches were played on matting.

Since then, it has been either a batsman's paradise or nightmare and everything else in between.

If looks and expert opinion are anything to go by, this will be Queen's Park's best pitch for many years. It has been compacted to a hard, flat surface with a thin, even covering of live grass.

Bryan Davis, Willie Rodriguez and Joey Carew, all former Test players and Queen's Park members and players since they were boys, are excited about the prospects. If they are correct, it should suit batsmen who favour their strokes and bowlers of pace and genuine spin.

The most prominent in the former category is Brian Lara, also a Queen's Park member since he was a boy but yet to score a Test hundred on the ground after seven Tests. He is now noticeably trimmer than he was as recently as the Australian tour and seemingly motivated. This is just the occasion for him to mark a special Test with a special performance.

The South Africans, from reports within their camp, were taken by surprise by the West Indies' resilience in the first Test and by the quality of the young batsmen. They will take nothing for granted from here on.

The cricket will only get tougher.