'Too Many' One-Days

Against the background that the last two encounters of the Cable & Wireless One-Day series are purely for academic interest, South African captain Shaun Pollock feels the international calendar is packed with too many matches in the shorter form of the game.

But his highly-professional outfit, holders of the Cable & Wireless One-Day Trophy following a fourth successive victory against West Indies at Kensington Oval on Wednesday, still plan to maintain an impressive winning streak in the sixth and penultimate match of the series at the Queen's Park Oval today.

There is a lot of one-day cricket. I won't deny that, Pollock said yesterday with the knowledge that his side goes into today's match with an unassailable 4-1 series lead.

There probably is too much in world cricket, but that's what brings the money in and that's what brings the people to come and watch.

It is a hard balance to find, but you would think that maybe they should cut back a little bit on one-day cricket.

In recent years, the international schedule has become increasingly demanding and it has not been helped by the scheduling of a number of limited-overs competitions.

In the space of two months in 1999, the West Indies went through a period in which went on a globe-trotting merry-go-round in which they played about 20 matches in Singapore, Sharjah, Canada and Bangladesh.

West Indies captain, Carl Hooper, who was in the international wilderness at the time following his retirement, is however not too concerned about the packed schedule.

Bangladesh's recent admission as a full International Council Cricket (ICC) member and Kenya's desire to join them will make things even tougher, Hooper said.

It's only going to get worse and we've got to prepare ourselves for it, the West Indies captain said.

As a result of your full-time profession, you probably might have hardly a break, so you've got to be able to pace yourself well and become a bit more professional in whatever you do.

It something I suppose the ICC will look at, but there is nothing that we can do about it now.

There has never been an influx of limited-overs matches in the Caribbean, but in recent seasons, authorities have scheduled a few more matches.

In the past, a series of five matches was the norm, but seven were scheduled in 1999 when Australia were here and there were nine in a three-nation tournament last year that involved Pakistan and Zimbabwe.

The current series, which also involves seven, moves into the homestretch today with the West Indies seeking to regain lost pride after they were thoroughly outplayed in Antigua, Grenada and Barbados.

We've still got a lot of pride to play for. We'd like to win the last two matches, but we are going to take one game at a time, Hooper said.

We're disappointed, but we realise that we've still got to pick ourselves up and go and try to win games.

Hooper, however, tried to be matter-of-fact in trying to make predictions.

There was a lot of talk when we lost in Antigua that we would bounce back in Grenada and we would bounce back and bounce back and bounce back, he said.

I'm being realistic. If we win tomorrow (today), it's great, but what we want to do is to try to put up a good show.

I don't think we've been playing to our full potential. We are a better side than the results have shown.

The recent South Africa victories by the commanding margins of eight wickets, 132 runs, eight wickets and seven wickets have given Pollock's team a record of 14 wins in their last 16 matches.

And the captain does not want it spoilt.

As a side we pride ourselves on our performance and in the way that we play, so we're going out to try and make sure that we win, he said.

There is no doubt about that. We want to end the tour on a winning note.

Even though the series has been wrapped up, an almost capacity crowd is expected at the Caribbean's biggest cricket venue which can accommodate about 25 000 spectators.

Late yesterday evening, it was reported that 95 per cent of the ground was sold and only tickets for the grounds remained available.