Tony Becca
THE WEST Indies next assignment in the Test arena will be against England, and following their victory at home in 2000, their victory in the West Indies a few weeks ago plus their overall performance in recent times, including that against New Zealand in the current series, England must be hot favourites.
For almost 10 years now, right after Australia knocked them off the throne as the kings of cricket, the West Indies have been struggling - to the extent that since 1997 they have not only lost twice to Eng-land, twice to Australia, three times to South Africa, once to India, twice to Pakistan and once to Sri Lanka, they have not only been whitewashed by Pakistan, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka, but that they also have had to dig deep, very deep, to defeat the likes of Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.
AWAY RECORD
What is even more disturbing, what makes England such hot favourites, is the fact that the West Indies' away record is nothing short of embarrassing.
Since 1997, the West Indies' only victories away have been against Zimbabwe and Bang-ladesh, and of the 16 matches won, only five have been away with four of them coming against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.
Looking at the two teams, the West Indies batting, to come from the likes of Brian Lara, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ram-naresh Sarwan, Christopher Gayle, Devon Smith and Dwayne Smith, should, with a little luck, a good summer, and with a master like Lara present, be as good and probably even better than England's.
The bowling, however, is a different kettle of fish.
Looking at the two teams, England's bowling - expected to come from pacers Steve Harmison, Matthew Hoggard, Simon Jones, James Anderson, and all-rounder Andrew Flintoff, is superior to that of the West Indies - especially if the tourists continue their folly of banking on pace.
PROMISING TALENT
Without a doubt, the West Indies have some promising talent in Fidel Edwards and Tino Best, Jermaine Lawson and Jerome Taylor, Corey Collymore and Pedro Collins.
For different reasons, however, maybe because a few of them were called too young and are suffering the effects of the hard work that Test cricket demands, maybe because the skills of a few have not yet developed to the standard required in Test cricket, with the exception of the left-handed Collins, who swings the ball both ways, who is gaining in confidence and becoming more consistent, it is difficult to see the West Indies fast bowlers taking on the England batsmen in their own backyard and coming out on top.
TWO SPIN BOWLERS
In planning for England's batsmen, in putting together an attack that would have a good chance of bringing Michael Vaughan, Marcus Trescothick, Graham Thorpe and company to their knees, the West Indies selectors should include both offspinner Omari Banks and left-arm wrist spinner Dave Mohammed and look at an attack of definitely one and probably two spin bowlers.
Although it happened then and may not happen now, the selectors should remember the impact of the young Sonny Ramadhin and Alfred Valentine in 1950, they should accept that the West Indies no longer have four great fast bowlers.
They should also appreciate the fact that variety is the spice of life and although the batsmen of Bangladesh cannot be compared with the batsmen of England, they should remember last Monday when, probably because of the different technique required to deal with pace and spin, probably because of the pressure on batsmen caused by a combination of pace and spin, the confused batsmen of Bangladesh surrendered when it was pace from one end and spin from the other.
TOP FOUR BOWLERS
The responsibility of selectors is to select the best team, that suggests that they should select the best bowlers, and there can be no question that Banks must be one of the top four bowlers in the West Indies.
On top of that, even without really looking closely at the current set of Windies fast bowlers, if the selectors take a good look at England's batsmen before selecting the bowlers, Mohammed should not only be in England as part of the squad but also as one of the top four - especially if it is a hot, dry summer.
There is no substitute for pace, real pace, and an attack of quality pace would leave England with hardly a chance. The fact is, however, the West Indies no longer possess quality fast bowlers, and until they do, they should face the reality of the situation and go for their best bowlers.
Despite the pitch in St. Lucia, the same thing may have happened had the West Indies played a specialist spin bowler instead of one of the pacers.
It may not happen in England, but it could and the circumstances suggest that it is worth a try. If not spin from both ends for long spells, pace from one end and spin from the other may well be the Windies' best chance of ambushing England.
