Windies to be truly tested

It has become a favourite buzz word in the modern sporting world of coaches, psychiatrists and trainers but, given the circumstances, it might appear pointless for Roger Harper, Jeff Dujon and Rudi Webster to impress on their young batsmen before Friday's first Test to be positive. After all, Adrian Griffith, Wavell Hinds, Chris Gayle and Ricardo Powell or, for all Mike Findlay's semantics, Ramnaresh Sarwan have only a dozen Test matches and a solitary hundred between them and are up against the best balanced and potentially most penetrative bowling combination in the game.

The Pakistanis have flown in Shoaib Ahktar, the rapid Rawalpindi Express, and Saqlain Mushtaq, the off-spinner with magic in his fingers, to complete their attack.

They join Wasim Akram, whose left-arm swing has earned him 383 wickets and made him one of the finest bowlers of all time, Abdur Razzaq, the pacy and persistent first change, and Mushtaq Ahmed, whose leg-breaks and googlies have mesmerised not only the present lot but West Indian batsmen of superior class and experience in the past.

Every style, except left-arm spin, is covered among the 718 Test wickets those five share. The mixture is so powerful that Waqar Younis, a fast, high class swing bowler with 292 wickets to his account, is unlikely to get a game.

So when coach Harper, his assistant Dujon and performance consultant Webster sit down with captain Jimmy Adams and his players at the Meridien Pegasus in Georgetown over the next few days, a clarion cry to be positive would seem like pushing Kid Site into the ring and telling him to knock Mike Tyson's block off.

But there is no other way.

In the continuing, and disturbing, absence of Brian Lara and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Sherwin Campbell and Adams are the only two batsmen of experience in the 11. They have pivotal roles to play as the blocks on which the foundation of reasonable totals have to be built.

In support, their juniors must be encouraged to play their natural game which, even for Griffith, is with freedom.

Occupation of the crease is a well-worn cricketing catch phrase and, in its proper context, an understandable dictum. But some batsmen, especially those seeking to please selectors, often misinterpret it to mean abandoning their strokes and simply blocking.

There was enough of it in New Zealand in December and in the couple of Tests against Zimbabwe to realise the confusion can stifle a gifted players' instincts.

Powell in New Zealand and Griffith against Zimbabwe are cases in point.

Out for a duck in his debut Test innings, Powell arrived in the second with one run on the board and Campbell, Chanderpaul and Lara all out. His response was spontaneous counter-attack, seven fours in 30 off 32 balls. It turned out to be topscore but he was promptly dropped. It was a negative message.

Griffith, the one batting success in New Zealand, seemed incapable of putting bat to ball against Zimbabwe. Out for two first-over 0s in the first Test, he spent an hour and a half and 74 balls over six in his next innings. Desperate, he changed garb in the second innings and thumped 11 fours in 54 off 41 balls as he hurried the West Indies to their victory.

Powell and Griffith, like every batsman, clearly need to get the balance between attack and defence right. But they all need to be given their head.

Whatever the young batsmen achieve in this series, the fact that there are so many of them places a tremendous burden on Adams and Campbell, captain and vice-captain.

Campbell did his job expertly when the teams last met just over two years ago in Pakistan, outscoring and outlasting all his colleagues in a series in which all three Tests were lost.

He took a lot of Wasim, Shoaib, Mushtaq and Saqlain then. He knows them well. His form and confidence are in good shape after his productive triangular series (316 runs, average 45.14) and his duty in countering Wasim and Shoaib with the new ball is even more critical this time.

Adams' worth has increased several fold since he was thrust into the captaincy, in the quality of his leadership and in his solid batting. But he is no Lara and those who partner him cannot afford to bat at his pace.

As a right-hander and with his ability to put the loose ball to the boundary, Franklyn Rose was the ideal foil in their stand of 148 against Zimbabwe at Sabina. His 69 included 12 fours, Adams' unbeaten 101 only six, but together they turned things round.

It was an example in positive cricket for others to follow.

Hitler always gamed

Othniel Downes (Hitler to anyone even vaguely acquainted with him), who died last week, was a bowler with a whippy, slightly round-arm action that generated livelier pace that seemed possible from such a slim physique.

That he played four matches for Barbados in the late 1950s was a tribute to his ability for he was a poor boy from Carrington Village who never represented any Division 1 BCA club.

The simultaneous arrival of Charlie Griffith, Prof Edwards and George Rock to join Wes Hall as the Barbados shock attack and the need to make a living as a globe-travelling merchant seaman brought his brief first-class career to a premature end. He later played for YMCA in the Intermediate Division.

To Hitler, cricket was more than a game. It was his life's passion. He played it, studied it and followed it with equal enthusiasm. He seldom missed a major match, wherever he was, and always had an opinion on some aspect of the game.

I came across him at the Melbourne Cricket Ground during the 1968-69 West Indies Test. His ship just happened to be in port.

He coached a host of young cricketers while at the National Sports Council, many of whom progressed to Barbados and even West Indies selection.

He was proudest of Sherwin Campbell, whom he identified, to me and anyone else who cared to listen, as a future Test player from the time he was a boy in short pants.