Weak West Indies start (26 November 1998)

26 November 1998

Weak West Indies start

By Tony Cozier in Johannesburg

They have been distracted by the tense, protracted negotiations between the players and the board that delayed their arrival by 10 days and are consequently short of proper preparation.

They have been weakened by injuries and chastened by a humbling defeat in their previous match.

To compound their general misfortunes, the president of the board, Pat Rousseau, and his wife were put through the ordeal of an armed robbery in crime-ridden Soweto on their second day in South Africa yesterday.

This is the disquieting background to the West Indies' historic first Test in South Africa, starting at the Wanderers' Stadium here this morning.

It is intensified by the fierce competitiveness of opponents desperate to erase the memories of their upset loss in England during the summer and establish themselves as what they claim to be-second only to Australia on the current ladder of Test cricket.

Yet expectations, as always, are great among the fanatical public back home and in South Africa itself where Ali Bacher, evangelistic head of the United Cricket Board, hopes the West Indies will "provide role models ... especially for the black youngsters who have begun to flood into the game in ever-increasing numbers".

Manager Clive Lloyd acknowledged the problems yesterday after a strenuous final workout in 30-degree heat in the excellent net facilities on the practice ground adjoining the Test venue.

"The guys have had to squeeze three weeks work into about 10 or 12 days and that's hard on them but once the Test match comes around, it brings the best out of the players," he noted, backed by the experience of 110 Tests himself.

"We knew what to expect when we came here," he added. "The whole tour has a lot of sporting and political significance and we want to go out there and show the people of South Africa that, although we are not flushed with facilities, we can produce excellent Test cricket."

The road to the Test has been so rocky it is being unrealistic to expect it to be smoothed to a Barber-Green finish within five days.

No sooner had the standoff between players and board that threatened the tour been settled and the team hurriedly on board their flight from London to Johannesburg than Jimmy Adams, the seasoned left-hand all-rounder, managed to so badly sever tendons in his right hand that he was forthwith ruled out for six weeks and replaced.

On the ground, the leg-spinner Dinanath Ramnarine also had his tour ended on Monday by a persistent shoulder injury. While the two champion, essential, but aging, fast bowlers, Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh, will again join forces today, having satisfied themselves of their fitness in the nets yesterday, both are carrying the after-effects of injuries that have left them woefully short of match practice.

The 35-year-old Ambrose had a painful toenail removed soon after arrival. Walsh, 36, was handicapped by tendonitis in the right knee, a mere hindrance he will endure in his 103rd Test in which he needs only two wickets to pass current team coach Malcolm Marshall's West Indies Test record of 376 wickets.

The attack on Rousseau (see story below) simply heightened the misgivings that there is a hex on the tour.

As he had been at the heart of the emotional impasse with the players during which Lara and vice-captain Carl Hooper were sacked, then reinstated, Rousseau has had a rough old time of it of late and it is not as if he can seek solace in his team's dressing room just now.

Ramnarine, rated by captain Brian Lara as "definitely a key part of the attack", would surely have played in the Test on a straw-coloured pitch that Lloyd described as "quite dry and likely to take turn". Another leg-spinner, Rawl Lewis, was flying in as a replacement from the current "A" team tour of India but was expected in only a few hours before the first ball.

Yet Lloyd said he and his co-selectors were keeping their options open before completely eliminating Lewis. His inclusion seems an unrealistic risk and the traditional attack of four fast bowlers, supplemented by the off-spin of Hooper, is likely.

It is inadequate preparation for a contest against the strong, well-balanced South Africans. They start with the psychological advantage of victory over the West Indies in the final of the mini World Cup tournament in Bangladesh a month ago, accentuated by Monday's remarkable defeat by Free State.

The only negative note for South Africa was sounded yesterday by Mvuso Mbebe, head of the National Sports Council, who said his organisation was concerned with the fact that there was only one non-white player in the South Africa 12, the 21-year-old left-arm spinner Paul Adams.

"We need to find out what the problem is," he said. "Maybe it is a selection problem or maybe the provinces aren't giving the players a fair chance to come through," he added.

That, at least, is not among the several problems that confront the West Indies.

Team (from): Brian Lara (Capt), Clayton Lambert, Philo Wallace, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Carl Hooper, Stuart Williams, Ridley Jacobs, Rawl Lewis, Nixon McLean, Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh and Franklyn Rose.

Source :: The Trinidad Express (https://www.trinidad.net/express/)