Fines system will work: Hooper

West Indies captain Carl Hooper backed the decision to implement a system of fines on players guilty of rash shots.

His comments appeared to come in response to a number of his batsmen succumbing to soft dismissals on day one of the fifth Test against South Africa at Sabina Park on Thursday.

After winning the toss and deciding to bat, the West Indies were reeling on 214 for nine wickets in their first innings at stumps.

The fines system was implemented after a catalogue of sloppy performances in the field and with bat in the series. Hooper himself was the most guilty on Thursday, caught after South African captain Shaun Pollock placed two men in the deep for a hook shot.

"It's not something that's going to work overnight," Hooper said of the fines system. "It's something which will only work over time and I'm sure we'll get an improvement, especially on the soft dismissals.

"Funnily enough, just after implementing it I go and play a shot like that, but that's the way the game is. It's the first really rash shot I've played the whole series and I've paid a heavy price for it.

"With the system we now have, when you play shots such as mine you get fined, it's as simple as that."

Hooper readily admitted that his side came off second best on a day when the South Africans bowled to their strengths, giving little away outside off-stump and waiting for the errors to come.

"I don't think we came up to scratch. The top four or five guys have got to get stuck in and make sure that we have a proper launchpad for our innings.

"It was a good wicket to bat on and we had a lot of debate over whether to bat first or last but it just goes to show it's the same result whatever you do.

"At the end of the day the batting let us down again," Hooper said.

The day could not have started any worse either, as debutant Leon Garrick fell to the first ball of the match, caught in the gully off the bowling of Allan Donald.

The South African was making his return to the side after missing the fourth test in Antigua with a hamstring injury, but despite the early wicket took some time to find his rhythm.

"I started off feeling very lethargic," Donald said afterwards, "but when I switched ends before lunch I started hitting my straps, picked up a couple of wickets and I felt better and better as the day went on.

"Some days you just wake up and you don't feel great, your rhythm's not quite there, then all of a sudden you get a boost and away you go."

With the pitch playing as true as any in the series so far, the South African batsmen should be confident of gaining a first innings lead.

Donald himself said he felt it was a pitch the visitors should feel comfortable batting on.

"It was very slow to start with, but after lunch it started to carry a bit better and it's now got a South African kind of bounce where the ball carries really nicely to the wicketkeeper.

"It's a flat wicket and we're used to that -- you can trust the bounce on this pitch," Donald said.

Mail Cricket Editor