'Sweet revenge' for Donald

Perhaps it was a change of island, perhaps just the passage of time, but it has taken a surprisingly long time for South Africa's cricketers to be drawn on the full scale of their achievement of winning a Test series in the Caribbean.

Their 82-run win over the West Indies in the fourth Test in Antigua last week gave the tourists an unassailable 2-0 lead in the five-match series. In the process they became just the second side to win a Test series in the Caribbean in the last 27 years.

Strike bowler Allan Donald is the only survivor from the side that lost the one-off Test in Barbados in 1992 after a dramatic final day collapse.

Despite missing out on the Antigua Test because of a hamstring injury, the series victory means no less to the man who is the only South African to have taken 300 Test wickets.

"It's sweet revenge, I tell you, sweet revenge," Donald said at the end of South Africa's drawn game against Jamaica in Montego Bay on Monday.

"Some people have said that we've beaten a very weak West Indies side, but they must now sit back and take note of what happened here, because it's not easy."

Donald admitted that the South African side of 2001 was far better equipped to deal with the demands of Test cricket than the inexperienced team which ventured unprepared to the Caribbean nine years ago.

"The progress we have made is huge. We came over in 1992 as very inexperienced cricketers. We had a leader in Kepler Wessels who took us and tried to explain the pressures of Test cricket to us and I think we were a little too naive to understand exactly what it was about at that time.

"Now I would say that this side is very experienced and they know how to win. We're much wiser now than we were nine years ago," Donald said.

VERY DISCIPLINED

Reflecting on the key areas where South Africa outperformed the West Indies, Donald was categorical.

"I think there's one word for it -- we've been very, very disciplined. We've been extremely disciplined when we've bowled and we've been patient when we've batted.

"The wickets haven't been fantastic, in Guyana and Trinidad especially, so we've had to get our noses in front all the time.

"I think that when we've bowled we've done so with discipline and a lot of pressure and we eked out a lot of runs when it really mattered. I think that's been the key to success on this tour," Donald said.

The final Test begins at Sabina Park on Thursday and familiar questions about how to motivate the side with the series already won make little impression on South African coach Graham Ford.

"I think everybody's fairly relieved that the job's been done because it has been a very tough series with a lot of tough cricket up until now. But I also feel that there's a desire to make it 3-0 rather than 2-1.

"There won't be any trouble motivating the guys for the fifth Test. We're well aware that the rest of the cricketing world have their eyes this series and a 3-0 result shows a real position of strength.

"It would also be good to create a psychological 'plus-factor' going into the one-day internationals," Ford said.

For Donald, victory in the Caribbean marked the turning of the wheel full circle. But, he insists, it is not the end.

"For me there is one more goal to go and that is to beat Australia in Australia, and then of course there is the World Cup in 2003 -- that will be the mission complete."

Mail Cricket Editor