Windies face tough test in Australia
Jimmy Adams' new-look West Indies side fly into Australia on Friday knowing they will have their work cut out in the upcoming five-Test series.
The former Caribbean kings, a pale shadow of the legendary sides skippered by Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards in the 1970s and 1980s, lock horns with a Steve Waugh-led Australian line-up which has displaced the Windies as the most feared combination in the game.
Adams' 16-man squad arrives in Perth on Friday to start preparing for the Frank Worrell Trophy series, starting in Brisbane on November 23.
Former Australian captain Ian Chappell, one of only three Australians to have led his side to a series win in the Caribbean, suggests the Australian summer could produce one of the most one-sided series on record.
"With the West Indies batting so badly, 10 days could be enough for five lopsided Tests -- if it were not for the fact Australia will probably amass some big totals," he said.
While most commentators are less pessimistic about the prospects of a worthwhile competition, the Australian Cricket Board is obviously nervous that the Windies' frail batting in recent series (totals of 54 and 61 against England in the recent series there and 51 against Australia in Port of Spain 20 months ago) do not inspire confidence.
Waugh, keen to even a few scores after being on the wrong end of Windies wallopings early in his career, is cautious, saying: "People have been telling us we're going to win easily, but it won't be easy."
Though the last series between the sides, in the West Indies early last year, produced a 2-2 draw, Australia had won the two previous confrontations -- 2-1 in the Windies in 1994-95 and 3-2 in Australia two years later.
The combatants could hardly go into the new series with more contrasting recent records.
While the West Indies crashed 1-3 to England -- hardly tigers of the modern game -- in the northern summer, Australia have won their past 10 Tests, whipping Zimbabwe 1-0 in a one-off Test in Harare 13 months ago, both Pakistan and India 3-0 in Australia last summer and New Zealand 3-0 away early this year.
The Australians have not been beaten in 12 Tests since they were conquered by Sri Lanka by six wickets in Kandy 14 months ago.
Australia's winning sequence of 10 Tests leaves Waugh's men needing to win in Brisbane to equal the record number (11) of consecutive Test victories by any team and to triumph again in the second Test in Perth a week later to establish an all-time best winning streak.
The present record was set by Lloyd's star-studded team of the 1980s.
Brisbane and Perth will provide the lethal Australian pace attack with the bounciest pitches of the summer, leaving Glenn McGrath, explosive Brett Lee and a rejuvenated Jason Gillespie licking their lips with relish.
Not so long ago, Australian batsmen would have cringed with apprehension at the prospect of facing a West Indies pace quartet on such lively strips. Now, with only 38-year-old veteran Courtney Walsh remaining of the Windies' speed merchants, after the retirement of Curtly Ambrose, the tables are dramatically turned.
Walsh, persuaded at the last minute to extend a 15-year Test career by one more series, has his own special reasons for a productive final fling: he needs only 17 more wickets to become the game's first bowler to reach 500 scalps.
But three of the supporting pacemen, Marlon Black, 25, Kerry Jeremy, 20, and Colin Stuart, 27, are virtual unknowns on their first senior tour.
Former West Indies firebrand Andy Roberts has been helping to prepare the trio for the trial of their lives.
Controversial Brian Lara, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Sherwin Campbell, Adams and youngsters Ramnaresh Sarwan, 20, and Daren Ganga 21, are the key players with the task of taming the Australian attack.
While they will be without match-winning leg-spinner Shane Warne -- out with a broken finger -- this provides little comfort for the tourists. His near-certain leg-spinning replacement, Stuart MacGill, was outbowling Warne before he was sidelined with a broken spinning finger.
The tourists start their programme with a one-day festival match against an Australian Cricket Board Chairman's X1 at Lilac Hill Park, Caversham, near Perth, Tuesday, before meeting the strong Western Australian side in a four-day first-class workout at the WACA Ground from Thursday (November 9).
The touring squad: Jimmy Adams (capt), Sherwin Campbell (vice-capt), Marlon Black, Courtney Browne, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Mervyn Dillon, Daren Ganga, Wavell Hinds, Ridley Jacobs, Kerry Jeremy, Brian Lara, Nixon McLean, Mahendra Nagamootoo, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Colin Stuart, Courtney Walsh
Manager: Ricky Skerritt. Coach: Roger Harper.
Mail Cricket Editor
