Windies spin shy

Manchester: Typically conservative, the West Indies have dismissed sound evidence, both first-hand and informed second-hand, and made only one enforced change to their team for the third Test against England starting here this morning.

As expected, Ramnaresh Sarwan is drafted in for his third Test in place of Shivnarine Chanderpaul and will bat at No. 6. But spin has been left solely in the left hand of Jimmy Adams, in spite of what the captain has reported looks a dry pitch, while Franklyn Rose and Reon King, the fast bowlers who flunked the challenge on the decisive last day of the second Test at Lord's and whose form since has been erratic, have been retained.

Although the pitch was covered for most of yesterday to protect it from frequent, heavy showers, Adams said he, coach Roger Harper and assistant coach Jeffrey Dujon had inspected it on Tuesday and found it relatively dry.

'That was one thing that stood out, in spite of the wet weather,' he reported. 'It was relatively dry on top.'

What is more, Adams acknowledged that he had been told by the ground authorities that spinners had got a few wickets over the course of the season.

'We had various discussions about the sort of pitch we're expecting and what sort of attack we thought would be best on it,' he added. 'These did involve whether we would or would not use a specialist spinner.'

The decision at last night's selection meeting was that the only such person in the 16, leg-spinner Mahendra Nagamootoo, would not be necessary. If they thought about preferring Chris Gayle to Adrian Griffith as opener because of his steady off-spin, it was not for long.

Like Harper, Ranjie Nanan, Clyde Butts, Rajendra Dhanraj, Nehemiah Perry and a host of others, Nagamootoo is the latest in a breed that has become an endangered species in West Indies cricket since Lance Gibbs last wrapped his calloused fingers round an off-break in 1976.

Nagamootoo is not the best leg-spinner in the world, and probably not in the West Indies either. But, like the others, he cannot be properly assessed unless he is given the chance, especially on a relatively dry pitch with a record of favouring spin in domestic county cricket during the season.

In contrast, after packing their attack with five bowlers above the 80 miles an hour clocking at Lord's, England are ready to include their spinner by recalling Robert Croft for his flighted off-breaks in case it does offer assistance. In the batsmen, Graeme Hick and Michael Vaughan, they have two others in the Gayle category of steady, rather than troublesome.

With the series locked 1-1, the match is obviously critical for both teams.

The manner of the Lord's defeat for the West Indies, with the capitulation for 54 to hostile, bodyline bowling late on the second day, was compounded by the fact that it followed the resounding innings victory at Lord's and was the first reversal under Adams and the new management.

No one has yet had the affrontery, or temerity, to mention the word grovel but there is an unmistakeable perception here that the West Indies' confidence has been so shaken they are ripe for the taking for the remaining three Tests of the series.

'Time to nail them' was how one newspaper headline put it yesterday over a piece by former captain Bob Willis, echoing the general comments that have followed Lord's.

Without going as far as Tony Greig infamously did in 1976 that so stirred Viv Richards, Michael Holding, Gordon Greenidge and others to a 3-0 triumph under Clive Lloyd, 'fragile' is how the West Indian temperament has been generally characterised.

Judged by their abysmal cricket in the triangular One-Day tournament that followed Lord's, it would not seem far-fetched. But Adams would have none of it conditionally.

'I really don't use the word fragile when I'm discussing the West Indies cricket team,' he told the obligatory media briefing. 'We're a good enough team to beat anybody in the world if we're playing consistently good cricket, with the emphasis on the word consistency.

As Harper did the day before, he needed only to refer to the performance in the first Test. He could also recall the remarkable Australian series in the Caribbean 18 months ago.

Bowled out at the Queen's Park Oval for 51, their lowest Test total, to lose the first Test, and their sixth in succession, by 312 runs, they were carried to victory in the next two Tests by two breathtaking innings by Brian Lara, a captain on probation.

His example, along with the bowling of Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh, inspired a weaker team that this, including five first-timers, to play above itself.