Inexperience hinders the West Indies

The youngest, least experienced team ever to represent the West Indies in a major international match carry their hopes into the day-night final of the LG Abans triangular series of One-Day Internationals against Sri Lanka at the Premadasa Stadium here today.

A spate of withdrawals through a host of different reasons left them with seven players 23 and under and an eighth who is 24.

Two have never played under lights before and another four had the experience for the first time in the qualifying round match against Sri Lanka a week ago that the West Indies won.

The only two in the XI older than 30 and with more than 80 One-Day Internationals are captain Carl Hooper (35 with 201) and vice-captain Ridley Jacobs (33 and 88).

It would be a miracle if they defeat opponents, on home turf, whose captain, Sanath Jayasuriya, plays his 247th One- Day International with more than 7 000 runs to his name. Four others in the home team have well over 100 each.

But, as the West Indies know from the bitter experience of two World Cup losses to India in the 1983 final and Kenya in the 1996 first round the shorter form of the game is the ideal stage for the upset.

One sizeable partnership or one incisive bowling spell can be enough to decide a match in which there can be no second innings comeback.

Realistically, the most threatening factor for Sri Lanka is complacency.

It is especially so as the only man they feared could make a difference will be airborne by the time the first ball is bowled, his left elbow in a cast and now out of action for at least six weeks.

The on-field collision with Sri Lankan fielder Marvan Atapattu that left Brian Lara with a dislocation and a hairline fracture has robbed the final of one of its star attractions.

His absence is likely to reduce the expected crowd of 30 000 in the sprawling stadium and the West Indies chances by as much as a third.

The left-handed batting maestro was already hugely popular in Sri Lanka where West Indies cricket is still held in high esteem in spite of their recent dismal record that includes a now familiar 3-0 loss in the preceding home series.

The three Ws, Sobers, Richards, Lloyd, Marshall and other greats of the past, who played here before the islandnation, once known as Ceylon, was granted Test status in 1992, evoke cherished memories.

Lara's phenomenal 688 runs in the Test series this time, the sublime manner in which they were made and his triumph over the unconquerable Murali, so caught the public's imagination that there were over 3 000 get-well calls to a Kandy radio station phone-in show the day after Lara's tour was ended.

His absence has placed a heavy responsibility on Hooper and the remaining batsmen to show their true worth as only Ramnaresh Sarwan and, belatedly, Daren Ganga and Chris Gayle have done.

Towards the end of a tour more personally horrid for Gayle than even the team itself, the tall left-handed opener exploded into the kind of action in Sunday's decisive match against Zimbabwe that could be the catalyst for a real West Indies challenge tonight.

A hasty hundred from him or, for that matter anyone else, and some reasonable support is needed for the total required of a team short of bowling depth against opponents strong on batting on a true pitch.

Something in the region of 290 would do which is exactly what did do for the West Indies' triumph over India in their previous triangular final in Harare in July.

Carl Hooper, captain (35 and 201); Daren Ganga (22 and 22); Chris Gayle (38 and 22); Ramnaresh Sarwan (8 and 21); Marlon Samuels (28 and 20); Ricardo Powell (52 and 23); Ryan Hinds (1 and 20); Ridley Jacobs (88 and 33); Darryl Brown (1 and 28); Corey Collymore (16 and 23); Pedro Collins (6 and 25).

Sri Lanka (from): Sanath Jayasuriya (captain), Avishka Gunawardene, Marvan Atapattu, Mahela Jayawardene, Russel Arnold, Kumar Sangakkara, Kumar Dharmasena, Chaminda Vaas, Nuwan Zoysa, Muttiah Muralitheran, Suresh Perera, Upul Chandana.