West Indies v England, 4th Test, Antigua Recreation Ground

A strange game this one, but one which largly satisfied both sides.

Looking at the pitch the day before the game, it was obvious that the West Indies had prepared one to avoid the widely predicted 4-0 whitewash. This had to be the flattest track in the whole world. My granny could get 400 on that.........etc.

Nevertheless, if England had won the toss, they could have got a big one and put the West Indies under some real pressure in the field. Watching the toss, it was obvious that Lara had won it as the microphone always gets stuck in the face of the winning captain. Obviously, the King of Trinidad as he likes to be known elected to bat.

The Antrigua Recreation Ground was pretty full at start of play. Many people thought that the West Indians would stay away, disgusted at their sides performance in the series so far, but thankfully this wasn't the case.

The old Schoolboy Stand square of the wicket had been demolished to make way for a huge Belgian-built temporary stand which had a capacity of 2600.

Unfortunately this was the least populated of all the stands, being about half full. This was not a major problem as it allowed the Pink Panther and his trusty sidekick, Sylvester the Cat all the more room to do their stuff (mainly sitting watching the cricket) at the front of the stand. These two stalwarts were once more sweating it out for the cause right in the front row which, from about midday was in full sun. No Atkins diet needed for these boys.

The first hour went by pretty uneventfully until Flintoff trapped Daren Ganga lbw for ten. The West Indies then started tonking our occasionally too short and too wide bowling around the park. This was not the sort of pitch to on which to bowl anything other than line or length and Chris Gayle helped himself to a comfortable fifty.

The tactic of bringing on a spinner the over preceding lunch is oft used by Test captains and why not? It often works. Vaughan brought on Batty and he had Gayle caught and bowled for 69 runs. Having faced the quicks all morning, Gayle had been deceived by Batty's flight and guile (and the thought of some much needed grub).

There followed a rain break in which 38 overs were lost, about ten overs while it was raining and 28 while the outfield was drying from the hot air being spouted by the West Indians in the crowd who claimed that they would win this Test.

This didn't bother the inhabitants of the party stand which was the next stand round going clockwise. You could pay money to go in here and also be supplied with food and drink for the day. Obviously, there's no such thing as a free lunch and wearing the same gaudy T-shirt as everyone else as well as singing and dancing when told was the price that had to be paid.

It looked good fun all the same.

At the end of the day, the West Indies were 208 for two with Lara on 86 and Sarwan on 41.

Lara's ton came up after twenty minutes of play when Hoggard dropped one short and was smashed through point for four.

Harmison looked the pick of our bowlers today. He was bowling just back of length in Caddick-like fashion and the batsmen appeared to struggle against him.

Between lunch and tea Lara got to 200 and despite never being entirely comfortable, he was especially watchful against Batty, people were already beginning to talk about a new record.

Next going clockwise round the ground was the big sightscreen and then the press box, where Geoffry Boycott could be seen giving Jonathan Agnew the benefit of his wisdom.

Further round was the Commercial Bank Rictichie Richardson Stand. This was made up of 90% England fans. Most of these were on package tours, but some were wearing T-shirts of their own to suggest that they had minds of their own. There was a certain amount of Carib Beer being drunk and laughs being had.

I suppose you've gotta laugh when Lara passes 300, his second triple century on this ground. Incidentally his first was against........oh, you already know.

I very nearly forgot Ramnaresh Sarwan, he got a decent looking 90 [Hark at me - "decent looking 90"! My top score is 46 (would have got a fifty, but my opening partner had had a triple heart bypass so running between the wickets was difficult). But compared to Lara, Sarwans effort was, I suppose, no more than "decent looking"].

A quick mention for Matthew Hoggard who spent most of the afternoon off the field. Rumours that he'd had enough of being tonked around the park by B.C. Lara are entirely untrue. I am informed that he instead was making sure he was within striking distance of the nearest toilet.

My notes at the beginning of day three read (in scrawly writing) "Lara has smashed us into submission". Batty and Trescothick were bowling at the start of the day's play which tells a story of its own.

Vaughan also bowled himself for a number of overs (he should do this more often) and picked up the wicket of Jacobs.......hooray....oh dear, the umpire's arm's sticking out. A bl**dy no-ball.

The Brits in the crowd were chuntering about this for the next few hours, but to be honest, too much is made of the getting-a-wicket-off-a-no-ball thing. The fact is, that if Vaughan's foot had been behind the line, like every other delivery, Jacobs would have had the usual amount of time to select his stroke and he probably wouldn't have been out. In fact, he wasn't out, because it was a no-ball. Alright?

The next stand round the ground in this part match-report, part ground-guide was the Bleachers.

This was an uncovered terrace with a backdrop of trees as well as the dilapidated spire of the Catholic Church. It was good fun in the Bleachers, which were similar in make-up to the bleachers found at many American baseball grounds, most notably the Boston Red Sox's historic Fenway Park.

The make up of fans in this section of the gound was 95% West Indian. This was a shame, as the atmosphere was fantastic. There were cheers of joy and a huge amount of flags from all the Carribean nations being waved enthusiastically at every oportunity. The flags of Trinidad and Tobago seemed to wave with the most enthusiasm. Funny that.

Brian Lara regained his world record Test score from Matthew Hayden just before lunch. Shortly afterwards Ridley Jacobs reached a much deserved century. Being Antiguan, this gave the locals even more reason to cheer and wind up the Brits. Well, they tried. The fact that we had already won the series 3-0 and that the West Indians looked like they weren't that bothered about winning this Test, gave us a warm feeling.

Or was that the beating hot sun?

Sure enough, Jacobs and Lara went off for some lunch and then came out to bat again. Not only did Lara want his record back, it looked like he also wanted to be the only batsamn to reach 400 in Test match cricket, despite the fact that this could jepordise his team's chance of victory.

Sure enough Lara got to 400 and promptly declared on 751 for five (the top score by over a hundred ever made on the ARG).

On reading his lips, I'm sure Lara said something like "Go on, Michael, you have a bat. I know it's the flattest pitch in the world ever, but I reckon you're knackered after chasing my balls all around the field for two and a half days."

And he wasn't far wrong. We batted poorly. Vaughan was out for 16, having got a shocking decision early on when the ball missed his bat by an inch and a half, but then the umpire was probably pretty knackered too.

Trescothick, Hussain and Thorpe made little impression and only Butcher out of the top five looked up for the fight making 52 from 83 balls.

At the end of play, England were 171 for five with Freddie Flintoff and debutant Geriant Jones at the crease both having steadied the ship somewhat. Jones had looked the part behind the stumps too, but as it was basically the B.C. Lara Show I forgot to mention him before. Sorry.

Flintoff made an impressive third Test hundred (a man of his talent should have more than three, surely). His effort was cheered to the roof in the two-tier Andy Roberts Stand, which was had a contingent of about 80% British. These consisted of a mixture of tour group types and independents, many imbibing in a beer or two, some sticking to flasks of tea and sticky buns.

Flintoff had been ably supported by Jones (G), who scored 38 as well as Jones (S) who scored 11. Hoggard made one before nudging a catch to Jacobs and trudging off to the toilet once again.

England were all out 285 with Flintoff unbeaten on 102.

Unsurprisingly, England were asked to bat again. Things looked better this time round and at the end of play we were 145 for no wicket with Vaughan on 74 and Trescothick on 61. This certainly raised the morale of the Barmy Army. I have yet to mention the one remaining main stand at the Antigua Recreation Ground. This was the West Indies Oil Stand. The front of the top tier was bedecked with flags. These were mainly crosses of St George with the names of people and place names emblazoned across them. The most prominent, day after day, was certainly "Let's have it. Squires Snooker, Lancaster" and this wins my prize for the most visible flag of the Test award.

It is no laughing matter that this double decker stand probably contravened every health and safety regulation in the book, but the atmosphere was second to none. Singing was led from the top deck by Leafy, Beefy and Traffic Light (those of you not on the Sri Lanka 2001 tour will know him better as Graham). There was also a trumpeter up blasting out tunes in support of the England cause. Various ditties were heard: the Last Post, the theme from the Great Escape, the theme from the Dambusters (complete with aeroplane actions from everyone) and theme from the Pink Panther. Unfortunately P.P. was at the time in the bottom deck at the time, seemingly oblivious to the fact that his tune was being played.

Even when England had been in trouble the day before at 65 for three, it was the inhabitants of the Oil stand who had been constantly chanting "Michael Vaughan's Barmy Army", letting the boys on the pitch know that, no matter how tough the going got, they weren't alone.

Between overs the Barmy Army in the top tier were somewhat drowned out by the cocophony of calypso-reggae pumping out from the speakers in the tier below. West Indians, and a few Brits were packed in here and gyrated to the between-overs beat as if in a trance.

England batted well all day to deny the West Indies the victory they didn't deserve.

Michael Vaughan made 140, Trescothick 88, Butcher 51 and Hussain 56. Vaughan's was a classy knock where he unleashed some of his trademark cover drives. Vaughan has to be the best exponent of the cover drive in the world. If not the best, then certainly the most aesthetically pleasing. The fact he is a tall man means that he achieves the same bat speed through the ball as shorter men, but appears to do it in a more graceful fashion. He can certainly crash it against the boundary boards as hard as anyone else in world cricket. And that's a fact [measured by my patented crashometer].

With half an hour to go and Thorpe and Geriant Jones looking in no danger, Lara called off the chase. England had done well to recover from running around the field for over two days and then losing early wickets. It would have been a shame if they'd have lost this Test having worked so hard in the first three.

The West Indies had obviously prepared a pitch in order to avoid the whitewash, but instead of the boring draw we could have seen, there was plenty to get excited about.

We had seen a world record, Harmison warned three times for running on the pitch, Tino Best also warned for running on the pitch, but still bowling flat out and getting in the batsmen's faces (and gatting jeered by the Barmy Army). Tino responded well to this barracking and even signed an inflatable canary which was lowered down to him from the top tier of the Oil Stand. This was good to see. I can imagine one or two other bowlers in world cricket that would have responded with a scowl and maybe even cried. Yes, I'm talking about you, Glen McGrath.

During the Test match I bumped in to Paul Bowden, organiser of the excellent WIshame website. His had been a marvellous effort before the tour and led in no small part to the reduction of prices at the Jamaica and Trinidad Tests. He had also given out T-shirts, stickers, badges and placards at the Tests. Apparently these were rarely shown on the television back home.

Too controversial, you see. Television companies like to pretend that everything is rosy at cricket, which is very often true, but you don't imagine they'd want to go and upset their hosts, the West Indies Cricket Board, by telling everyone what a bunch of money-grabbing theives they are do you? Exactly.

They're all in bed together. And it stinks.

To his credit, I am told that while doing a radio broadcast, Tony Greig asked Mark Nicholas about the levy on ticket prices. Nicholas changed the subject very quickly, saying he had just spotted Mike Gatting, which had reminded him of a story about Gatt's pie-eating exploits. Mark Nicholas rarely says anything controversial, especially concerning a situation where it's the fans that are being robbed blind. Too busy looking in the mirror and preening himself, you see. Doesn't give two hoots for anyone else.

After the match there were the usual presentations, which were made both hilarious and embarrassing by the fact that the link from the microphone to the P.A. system was more often off than on. Yo, yo, yo, Norman Collier's in the house.

Vaughan was presented with the Wisden Trophy, which was ours anyway and Steve Harmison won the man of the series award and gave a little speech of which none was audible (due to the problems with the P.A., not because he's a mumbler). There were photos on the pitch where the team looked over the moon to have won the series without losing a Test, a fantastic effort.

One team photo was gatecrashed by a fella resembling Tony Hancock, who ran onto the pitch in a George Cross shirt and dived into the middle of the players who watched him lying on his back waving his arms and legs in the air with bemused looks on their faces.

And that was it. A job well done in the Caribbean.

Just some one-dayers to get over with and then it's New Zealand at home, who will present a tough challenge.

After that it's the Windies again (yawn) and then we're off to South Africa, which will be a fantastic tour, both from a cricket, cultural and partying point of view.

Get booked now!

andy clark
editor
the Corridor of Uncertainty
the official unofficial England cricket fanzine
www.corridorofuncertainty.com