Hoping for tour de force

The West Indies set off on their latest cricketing assignment last night unrecognisable as the nervous, insecure and untried team that Zimbabwe needed only 99 to beat in the first Test of what has been an uplifting home season.

The heart-stopping victory on Monday over Pakistan, no mean opponents, was a fitting climax to a long home season and a boost to morale for the even longer summer that now follows in England.

What luck was going in the final, decisive moments at the Antigua Recreation Ground undeniably favoured the West Indies.

But the unity and the self-confidence vital to success in any team sport had returned long before nervous fingers, of both umpires and the fumbling Saqlain Mushtaq, failed to do what they should have done to reverse the outcome.

There are inevitable comparisons to make with last season and the history of recent overseas campaigns to temper enthusiasm.

A year ago, the West Indies had returned from their humbling tour of South Africa and had been bundled out for 51 in losing the first Test to Australia.

It was the signal for the beleaguered captain, Brian Lara, to personally take the lead with his blazing bat. The upshot was a 2-2 share of the series.

Overseas drubbing

This year, the preceding overseas drubbing was at the hands of New Zealand, a setback compounded by the resignation of Lara and his decision to take a break from the game.

As Lara did against Australia, Jimmy Adams, his reluctant successor, stepped forward to show the way.

His method, of batsmanship and leadership, is markedly different. The effect has been the same.

For so long considered too much of a loner to skipper even Jamaica, Adams was a revelation.

Under his sympathetic direction, the team regained the harmony that Lara noted was missing since the South African tour.

There was one significant difference from one year to the next.

Last season, not a single new player of the future was in sight.

Now, in Lara's absence, three young batsmen ' Wavell Hinds, Chris Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan ' have quickly lifted their game to the level required in Test cricket.

Hinds improved so spectacularly from the indecisive novice initially bamboozled by Mushtaq Ahmed to the confident, free-stroking player of the last two Tests that there can be little doubt about his future.

First season

His Man-Of-The-Series award against Pakistan was the first I can recall for a batsman in his first season and was earned against certainly the best balanced and most experienced, arguably the strongest, attack in the contemporary game.

Hinds' left-handed Jamaican compatriot Gayle, 20, and the stylishly correct Sarwan, 19, also clearly have lengthy careers ahead of them.

Suddenly, the question is being asked, who will make way for Lara in England? As recently as March, it was who to put?

Not everything is yet set fair.

Repeatedly, the sameness of the bowling was exposed on good pitches, unable to convert favourable starts into clinical finishes.

Worries

The rapid decline of Ridley Jacobs' batting, in the No. 7 position that is so critical given a lengthy tail, and the failure to find an opening pair capable of stringing together consistent starts are two other worries.

Adams and coach Roger Harper are realistic enough not to gloss them over.

They will also be conscious of the diabolical record overseas where the West Indies have not won a series since 1995, losing their last ten consecutive Tests.