'We're playing for pride,' says West Indies manager

The once-great West Indies, who ruled Test cricket in the mid-1980s, have been reduced to playing for pride, team manager Ricky Skerritt said.

Australia will host the West Indies in the fourth Test starting on December 26 in Melbourne in what is traditionally a highlight of the summer, with a crowd of at least 60,000 expected for the first day's play.

But the tourists are already 3-0 down in the five-Test series and the Sir Frank Worrell Trophy remains in Australia's grasp.

"We have to get out there and show our pride and regain the respect of the Australian sporting public," Skerritt said on Friday.

The West Indies lost the first two Tests by an innings but recovered, thanks largely to a superb 182 from Brian Lara, to threaten Australia's winning run in the third test in Adelaide before losing by five wickets.

Before the third Test the West Indies called in a psychologist to lift the team's spirits.

"In between the second and third Tests when we went to Canberra and then Hobart we made a conscious effort to refocus, to lick our wounds a little bit and try to jump-start the tour all over again," Skerritt said.

"We made some progress but obviously we were only competitive for three days in the Adelaide Test (making only 141 in their second innings) and that's not good enough.

"There was a clear improvement. We have to play (well) over the whole five days."

Australia on top of the world

Australia have won 13 successive Test matches, overtaking the record of 11 straight victories set in the mid-1980s by Clive Lloyd's West Indies team.

Lara's form, contributing just 21 runs in four innings in the first two Tests, plus a foot injury to Shivnarine Chanderpaul, helped to make the start of the tour a disaster.

Chanderpaul played only one Test on the tour and flew back to the Caribbean on Thursday. His replacement, teenager Marlon Samuels, made 35 in his Test debut in Adelaide.

Chanderpaul was also sent home injured during the West Indies' tour of England in the northern winter, suffering an arm injury.

"We had a similar situation with him in England when he showed improvement then got injured," Skerritt said of the 26-year-old, who has an average of 40.63 over 45 Tests.

"They actually removed a piece of bone from his heel so the root cause of the problem is solved.

"He should be okay in two months. I think he is looking forward to getting back into shape.

"He has 10 years of Test cricket ahead of him. I don't like to rate players individually but I would say he was our second-best batsman coming into this tour."

Mail Cricket Editor

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