Postcard (27 February 1999)

27 February 1999

Postcard

from Justin Langer

From Antigua to Trinidad and the days are rapidly counting down to the first Test match on March 5.

Comparing the tropical island of Antigua to the industrial city of Trinidad is like comparing one of the islands in North Queensland to Newcastle in New South Wales. Although Trinidad has a coastal port and its fair share of palm trees, it is a definitely not the tropical paradise of Antigua.

That is not to say that Trinidad is lacking in a great deal of character of its own. Famous for the Trinidad Carnival, the atmosphere here is very upbeat with lots of music, dancing and revelry.

Trinidad is also home to the 'Prince' of West Indian cricket, Brian Lara. His house is one of the monuments of the city, lying on top of one of the mountains overlooking the whole city. It almost looks like the White House, standing with all of its magnificence like a watchtower of his home city.

Rumour has it that the Trinidadian government gave him the block of land as a gift after he broke the world record for the highest individual Test score. Whether this is completely accurate I don't know, I will have to ask him when we see him in the next few days.

Today we played day one of our four-day game against the West Indies Presidents XI. Having just got back to the room I can tell you that we earned our money today.

The ground we are playing at, Gauracara Park, took an hour drive to arrive at this morning. Leaving the hotel at 7:15am means an early start and a very lengthy day in cricket mode. After the return journey we had our mandatory swimming session in the hotel pool, meaning that we have been out of our rooms for about 12 hours.

Gauracara Park is situated within the complex of the Trinidad Petroleum Works, so the air that blanketed us smelt like one of those really old petrol stations times about a hundred. The smell in the air took some getting used to as it is rare that you play a game of cricket in a massive petrol station where the aroma of petrol and oil eliminates the general essence of cricket ground hamburgers and sizzling hot chips.

Fortunately we had an excellent day on the field with Stuart MacGill claiming six wickets and Glenn McGrath and Warney chiming in with the remaining four poles. Stuie is going from strength to strength in this team, and with growing confidence his control and accuracy is improving with every outing.

Before I left the shores of Australia I predicted the leg-spin combination of Warne and MacGill could dominate this series and after today's performance my feeling has only been enhanced. It is very exciting for cricket to have two outstanding leg-spinners playing in one team.

Even more exciting is having two class spinners teaming up with the best fast bowler in the world, Glenn McGrath, and speed demon Jason Gillespie backing them up. I have a feeling the West Indian batsmen are going to be in for a tough assignment in the four-Test series. Let's keep our fingers crossed anyway!

With the Mercantile Mutual Cup Final on tomorrow the boys couldn't help but have a friendly bet amongst each other. Patriotic Victorian skipper Shane Warne has had a bet with about seven of the guys in the team. While the cumulative figure that has been placed on the table will be kept confidential, it would be fair to say, I hope the Vics get up tomorrow or Warney may be singing for his supper as the saying goes.

While on tour there is always plenty of interest amongst the team when it comes to Sheffield Shield cricket and the Mercantile Mutual Cup competition. Rest assured, not one player gives an inch when voicing their biased opinions on the state of their own team. It always makes for very interesting, and at times light-hearted but heated banter throughout the day.

From Trinidad, JL