An intriguing battle beckons

Looking for something special: Brian Lara wouldn't mind winning a Test in Pakistan which West Indies haven't done in nine years © Getty Images

Time was when this clash was the stuff of headlines. From the mid-eighties through the early nineties, Pakistan and West Indies scrapped in three titanic series. Sure, the West Indians were unquestioned lords in everyone's eyes. But Pakistan queried that status more rigorously than anyone else, home and away. Neither side budged, honours shared as evenly as possible each time. Imran, Qadir, Miandad, Richards, Marshall, Haynes; the cricket and those responsible for it were cricketing mythology. But the times, as Dylan croaked to us, they are a changin'.

Presently, legends are distinctly scarce; a Brian Lara here, an Inzamam-ul-Haq there. Neither side can claim pretensions to anything much now; for the modern-day battle for world supremacy, please switch gazes to the other side of the globe. And let it be noted that both these sides were swamped by England and Australia in their most recent encounters. Definitely, the allure that once was is no longer, but there remains sprinkled enough subtext for the clash to be tasty.

For a start, it's been an age since the West Indies were last here, nine years to be precise. And they won't mind winning a series here; they haven't done it since Clive Lloyd's men eked out a 1-0 win a quarter of a century ago. They haven't won a Test here either since 1990-91. Lara made his debut in that series, a composed 44 in the drawn final Test at Lahore.

More's the pity that he's available to Pakistani crowds for only three more Tests for he has never turned it on in four appearances here (average of 22.00 and not a fifty in eight innings), but he might yet leave us with something special. Pakistan has often brought out the king in him in the Caribbean and in their last encounter, in 2005, he obliged with a couple of fabulous hundreds. That gargantuan appetite for runs isn't as consistent anymore, but rare is the series which passes by without at least one special.

In the unlikely event that there isn't one forthcoming, enough entertainment is to be expected from the likes of Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Dwayne Bravo and Shivnarine Chanderpaul. Gayle is currently cricket's coolest presence, having become, in his pesky defiance of the superpower of Australia in recent games, a Hugo Chavez of sorts for the game. Each new wicket-taking celebration is lapped up but not as much perhaps as the blaze of his bat. To an audience that particularly adored Sir Viv Richards, Gayle's uniquely Caribbean bombast is eagerly awaited.

In Jerome Taylor, they also possess a brand new, bright-eyed, bouncy pace star. The speed is flashy, no doubt, but as the Champions Trophy revealed, he isn't an unthinking brute. Able support is present in Corey Collymore and Fidel Edwards and if either is often overlooked by opponents, Pakistan will not be making that mistake. Edwards's skiddiness was their undoing in Bridgetown last year while Collymore's cunning could have done likewise in Kingston but for a costly dropped catch to reprieve Inzamam. Somehow, the whole is still less than its parts, over five days at least, but stern tests will be provided.

Pakistan will take any cricket, soft or hard, after the autumn they have just undergone. Just playing, you sense, will be relief enough. On-field problems haven't changed; a regular opening pair, like criminals, eludes identification and the pace attack, for obvious reasons, is still not their first-choice one. Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Sami, Shabbir Ahmed, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan and Umar Gul represent fantastic resources but are likely to remain a group only in the fantasies of fans. Only three are actually allowed to play cricket. Only one is in the squad.

Shoaib and Asif's absence has understandably attracted attention, but no less destabilising has been the recent decline of Rana Naved. His bag of tricks has become too much experimentation, the wicket-taking knack vanished and like Sami, for now he is gone. The progress of Gul is much-needed consolation. Pakistan's best bowler in England and India, he has regained the pace and bounce his back injury initially robbed him of and if by some miracle, he happens upon a grassy pitch during the Tests, his can be an important influence. If not, enter Danish Kaneria.

But no head has been missed more in this manic period than the inestimably soothing one that resides atop Inzamam's broad shoulders. The nuts and bolts of his leadership might never be celebrated as such, but if ever evidence was required of why he is needed, the last month provided it. He didn't miss any Tests, just the Champions Trophy, but he was away from the scene post-Oval. And during it, there was chaos, quite literally, as if the lid had been taken off Pakistan cricket's permanent madness.

Rumours of factionalism and disharmony might disappear for a while, no stroppy, captaincy-chucking press conferences will be held and once again will stroll the benevolent, patriarchal and reassuring figure of Inzamam. His batting will also be welcomed.

So awaits an intriguing clash. Many questions will be asked though few may receive decisive answers. Much of the attention will focus on the Ashes, but there is enough context here and in the history of contests between the two to suggest it might be worth tuning into Pakistan for the next month.