Injury-plagued West Indies take on Sri Lanka

What with one thing then another, no West Indies team could have entered a Test series less properly prepared than Carl Hooper's when it takes the field against Sri Lanka in the southern town of Galle tomorrow morning.

It required the persuasive powers of Wes Hall, the new president of the board, and the kind of security assurances otherwise reserved for heads of state to convince the players that they should venture into Sri Lanka in the first place.

Until a few days before they departed, it wasn't certain whether Brian Lara, the key batsman, was fit enough to make it.

No sooner than he told the selectors that he was, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, no less essential to the middle order, developed serious back problems and had to drop out.

Wavell Hinds, not in the original squad but summoned as cover for Lara, found himself substituting for Chanderpaul instead, only to promptly have his nose broken in a festival knockabout in Kingston.

Doctors, and selectors, deemed him fit enough to join the tour all the same, even if a week late. Be advised that he shouldn't be placed too near to the bat when fielding.

Once on the ground, the West Indies have found their welcome most inhospitable, not from their cricketing hosts, the disruptive rebel Tamil Tigers guerillas or the rival factions campaigning for the December 5 elections but from the weather. It's the closing weeks of the monsoon season.

Hooper, Lara and coach Roger Harper were on the last West Indies team to tour Sri Lanka, over the first three weeks of December eight years ago, when three days of the solitary Test were washed out, just 106 overs bowled in the one first-class match and only one of the three One-Day Internationals ran its course.

Assigned a mere two three-day matches prior to the three back-to-back Tests this time, they have had to pass more time slapping dominoes, listening to Shaggy or Shadow on their walkmans or simply watching the rain fall than getting in any meaningful cricket.

Come tomorrow morning and they would have had roughly twoand-a-half days match play as groundwork.

At least Hooper himself, Chris Gayle, whose appetite for runs continues to be insatiable, Lara, Marlon Samuels, Ridley Jacobs and Daren Ganga have each had valuable time in the middle. And those bowlers lucky enough to be chosen for the match that ended yesterday had the workout of one innings.

But, whichever way you look at it, it is all patently insufficient, especially against opponents with home advantage who have played four Tests as recently as late August and mid-September and who have just returned from a triangular One-Day series in Sharjah.

It is a test for the motivational skills of Hooper, Harper and manager Ricky Skerritt, the proficiency of trainer Ronald Rogers and the resilience of the players themselves.

The most recent evidence is encouraging. The spate of injuries that decimated the team in Zimbabwe back in June with Lara departing before the tour started and Merv Dillon, Cameron Cuffy and Dinanath Ramnarine going before the Tests seemed to strengthen the resolve of those who remained.

Gayle, Ganga and Hooper set the platform for the first Test victory with a 500-plus total. Colin Stuart and Neil McGarrell, who would probably not have been in the XI otherwise, finished off the job by an innings.

Sri Lanka, it is true, are not Zimbabwe. They are a strong, well-balanced, confident team with a recent record that places them fourth of ten on the ICC's current Test league table.

But they are not Australia or South Africa either. They will bow to the pressure of a sizeable total and consistent bowling, supported by alert catching and sharp fielding.

Such attributes have been in short supply in West Indies' teams of late and, given the present circumstances, it may be too much to except them to suddenly materialise as if by magic.

Hooper and Lara, as the two classiest and most experienced batsmen, carry the task of giving the undeniably limited bowling attack the leeway it needs. The West Indies' abysmal away record 18 losses against one win and one draw in 20 Tests prior to Zimbabwe was caused by several things. High on the list was a collective lack of heart and commitment.

If ever they were needed, it is now.