South Africans must beware West Indies backlash

They came back from defeat against Australia two years ago and they will have to do it once more against South Africa.

Despite their woeful record on their travels in recent years, the West Indies remain a fearsome prospect at home. Having gone 1-0 down in the series after losing by 69 runs in Trinidad, Carl Hooper's team go into the Third Test, which begins at the Kensington Oval on Thursday, knowing that defeat is not an option.

Barbados is a West Indian fortress, an island which has produced several of the game's all-time greats and a ground where tourists have been routinely steam-rollered. "No one beats the West Indies at the Kensington Oval," was a warning a naive South African team failed to fully comprehend in the one-off test in 1992, when they were blown away on the final day by Curtley Ambrose and Courtney Walsh.

Ambrose, of course, has gone fishing, but Mr 500 soldiers on. The likelihood is that in Barbados Walsh will be joined in the West Indian pace attack by Cameron Cuffy of St Vincent, who played the last of his three Tests in India four years ago. Cuffy is one of two changes as the unimpressive Nixon McLean and Reon King stand down.

The other new face in the West Indies thirteen is 21-year-old Trinidadian left-arm wrist-spinner Dave Mohammed. Like Cuffy, Mohammed impressed for a West Indies Cricket Board XI against the South Africans in a three-day match at the Kensington Oval this week, generating extra bounce and bowling with great control for a man (boy?) who has just two first-class games under his belt.

Whether he is ready to play Test cricket is another question entirely and the prospect of the West Indies going into a Barbados Test with two specialist spinners has horrified locals who trust in the traditional strengths of Caribbean cricket.

The South Africans, despite giving game time to Boeta Dippenaar, Justin Kemp, Andre Nel and Paul Adams against the Board XI, are highly unlikely to tamper with a winning formula. The players need no reminding just how hard the West Indies will come back at them.

"Over the years, continuity of selection has been one of the strengths of South African cricket," South African coach Graham Ford told CricInfo on Monday. "Barring anything dramatic, I think it will be the same team."

The only possible 'dramatic' turn concerns Nicky Boje. The all-rounder aggravated a long-standing knee injury during the Board XI game and did not take the field for the final session. Although he is considered a genuine cause for concern by both coach and captain Shaun Pollock, he is expected to be fit by Thursday.

After the slow and low pitches of the first two Tests, the Kensington Oval is expected to provide something with a little 'extra', although the strip across the square used for the Board XI game hardly suggested any great change.

"Well, I don't know, we'll have to wait and see," Pollock said on Monday. "It looks similar (to the pitch used for the Board XI match) but how it plays is another story. It looks like it has a bit of grass covering, but if it plays like this one then it won't be much different from the ones we've played on so far."