Cricket: Team overview: West Indies

They were household names then and they're household names now.

Andy Roberts, Joel Garner, Michael Holding, Malcolm Marshall, Courtney Walsh, Curtly Ambrose: since the inaugural World Cup in 1975, at least one of them has been in the West Indies squad, making batsmen duck and weave and look desperately skyward before trudging disconsolately back to the pavilion.

No longer. The bowling production line has finally ground to a halt.

West Indies 2003 is a team front-loaded with batsmen, Brian Lara and Carl Hooper heading the list. Mervyn Dillon is their only bowler of real note.

The decline has been in progress for more than a decade. The last throw of the dice came four years ago in England. The West Indies may have failed to reach the second round, but the top three names in the tournament bowling averages in 1999 read: C. A. Walsh (WI) 11 wickets at 9.81 and an economy rate of 2.29 an over; R. D. King (WI) eight wickets at 11.87 and 3.01 an over; C. E. L. Ambrose (WI) seven wickets at 13.42, economy rate 2.35.



There are some grounds for optimism, with a 3-1 one-day series win over New Zealand last June, backed by a morale-boosting 4-3 victory in India, when Chris Gayle made huge strides in filling the problematic opening berth by clattering three centuries and a half-century in seven innings.

Nor Hooper's men fear a repeat of their shock 1996 defeat by Kenya - one of the three biggest upsets of any cup - after putting the record straight with a 3-0 away whitewash in late 2001.

It is South Africa who are the West Indians' worst nightmare. Last time the team travelled there, in 1998-9, the tour started with a players' strike over pay which saw them refusing to leave their Heathrow hotel for several days. Lara, then the captain, was sacked, then reinstated.

When the series finally got underway, the West Indies were whitewashed 5-0 in the tests and lost 6-1 in the one-dayers.

The last time the South Africans visited the Caribbean, in 2001, they again won both, the one-dayers by a comprehensive margin of 5-2.

Hooper became the first West Indies skipper to lose both test and one-day series at home, and the president and vice-president of the West Indies board soon departed after a power struggle.

Under Hooper, however, with Viv Richards now heading the selectors, the team seem to have toughened up, with Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan at last turning potential into runs.

The tactic will be clear. This side may not bowl out too many teams, but they will look to restrict while backing themselves to chase down targets.

Much of the responsibility will rest with Hooper and Lara. Dogged by injuries in recent times, the left-handed Lara, who turns 34 this year, has said he wants to be the tournament's top runscorer. Such an ambition is not to be taken lightly.

In 203 ODIs, he averages 42.64 with 15 centuries. His strike rate is a point below 80, demonstrating that he scores quickly as well as prolifically. His test average of 49.49 is fractionally below 50, the accepted benchmark of a great player.

Against Australia at Kingston, Jamaica, in March 1999, he produced an innings which moved respected West Indina commentator Tony Cozier to write: "I cannot identify a single innings by any West Indian batsman in our 71 years of test cricket of such significance."

The West Indies had been dismissed for 51, their lowest-ever score, in the previous test, prompting an angry reaction at home.

But Lara rose to the challenge, stroking a match-winning 213.

- REUTERS



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INSIDE TRACK

Captain: Carl Hooper.

Coach: Roger Harper.

Strengths: Their batting - in Brian Lara, Carl Hooper and Shivnarine Chanderpaul they boast world-class experience, backed up by the youthful promise of Chris Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan, fresh from his first ODI ton.

Weaknesses: Their bowling. Mervyn Dillon boasts more than 100 wickets in tests and 99 in ODIs, but there is little obvious quality queuing up behind him. Vasbert Drakes' statistics looked good against Bangladesh - 12 one-day wickets at 6.5 apiece - but, aged 33, he has only just returned to the team after seven years in South Africa.

Key man: Lara - his last of 15 ODI hundreds came two years ago, but he remains the team's prized wicket. Has not produced many fireworks recently - always a danger sign.

One-day form: A home win over New Zealand and a 4-3 series victory in India in November will have given them real confidence. Against the big guns, though, they have struggled. The last time they played South Africa - at home - early in 2001 they lost the one-day series 5-2. That came immediately after a drubbing in Australia.

Past World Cups: The West Indies won the first two finals, in 1975 and 1979, before surprisingly losing the 1983 final to India. Since then, their results have declined, although they went close to surprising Australia in the 1996 semifinals. In 1999, despite the fine fast bowling of Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose, they crashed out after the first round.