South Africa’s batsmen might not relish the prospect of playing at Queen’s Park Oval, where seven of 16 innings have fallen short of 200
John Young
The Proteas arrived in the Caribbean on Wednesday with good memories of South American hospitality. A cricket writer’s 30-year-old verdict still applies: “Hospitality is more than a preoccupation, it is Guyana’s national sport.”
More of the same is expected in Trinidad but South Africa’s batsmen might be even less pleased with the Queen’s Park Oval, venue of the second Test starting on Saturday, than they were with Bourda. This is the Oval’s 50th Test and the picturesque Port-of-Spain ground was Sunil Gavaskar’s favourite. When India won a series here in 1971 he scored 220, but things have changed. If either team equals Gavaskar’s score, it will be among the highest team totals achieved here in four Test matches.
Seven out of 16 innings have fallen short of 200 with West Indies’ 51 against Australia and Zimbabwe’s 63 the worst. The wicket-takers were all tall and skidded the ball off the seam: Australia’s Glenn McGrath, Angus Fraser from England and, of course, Curtly Ambrose.
Ambrose is gone so the West Indies are hoping that the pitch will turn like the history books report that it used to. Dinanath Ramnarine did well enough in the first Test (4/151 in 68 overs) to suggest that he’ll be a factor on his home ground.
Carl Hooper says: “We want tracks to give people like Ramnarine and myself a chance and maybe we will even pick another spinner.”
They won’t and there’s no chance of Paul Adams playing either. One reason is that Adams is bowling too full. South Africa have also found someone who can bowl tightly on rolled mud. Lance Klusener’s miserly first innings spell pulled the game back for South Africa at Bourda when things looked bad.
Coach Graham Ford said after Klusener’s first day 2/31 in 26 overs: “We have used that sort of strategy in Sri Lanka and Shaun [Pollock] has thought it through.” The field setting resembled a Durban Beach shark net with Pollock stranded like bait in the middle of the circle at short mid-off. In the second innings Brian Lara was hooked as he drove on a paceless pitch.
The South African team won’t change although it is worrying that Neil McKenzie started on both of the slow pitches of Guyana as hesitantly as he did in Sri Lanka. South Africa’s primary aim in these first weeks is to adapt. Gary Kirsten’s splendid marathon and good innings from Herschelle Gibbs, Jacques Kallis and Mark Boucher suggest that it’s happening.
The Kanhai Stand rum brigade told me that Ramnaresh Sarwan is a fluent stroke-maker. But it took the 20-year-old some time to adapt to the pressure of playing a first home Test. His second innings 91 was a gem that justified the selectors’ faith in youth.
Another to impress was the tall, long-reaching Chris Gayle, who drove fluently off front and back foot. On the fourth day he was reduced by the dead pitch and tight bowling to a plodding 44 runs in nearly two hours.
West Indies won’t mind. Two 300-plus innings in succession means progress. They have been in such a deep trough that if they can stay in the game with South Africa then the young players will blossom.
Hooper’s appointment is controversial and it was fortunate for him that the first Test was played where he learned his club cricket. His half-century earned cheers normally reserved for winning goals in soccer cup finals.
The Windies’ other prodigal son will get a warm welcome at Queen’s Park. No one seems to mind that different rules apply to Lara.
It was odd, even bizarre, to see the special treatment Lara gets at net practice. The West Indies team now has a psychologist. When a young club bowler went past Lara’s outside edge four times in a row, Joe Hoad intervened and told the bowler to switch to spin. Lara proceeded to cart the spin offerings over the Police Club roof.
Kallis might be tempted to prepare by listening to Monty Python tapes. Out in the first innings to a thick edge on to his pad, in the second he received what in these parts is called a “ground-eater”. In between, a poor decision by home umpire Ed Nicholls robbed him of Hooper’s wicket off the first ball he bowled to him. If the International Cricket Council is flying umpires around the world, why can’t it put two visitors on the field at any one time?
More potential for humour awaits in Trinidad. Frances Edmonds came here with her England cricketer husband in 1986 and wrote about the hotel where the South Africans will stay: “The Trinidad Hilton takes some getting used to. Locally it is referred to as the ‘Upside Down hotel’ since the lobby is on the ground floor, and the bedrooms, having been constructed on the side of a hill, are in a staggered formation underneath. The architect was obviously a man of some vision and not a little sense of humour.”
The top songs at last month’s Trinidad Carnival were Tremble and Stranger. When India played a one day international here in 1983 there was a “brief but strong” earthquake.
With West Indies cricket showing some spirit again, perhaps the Queen’s Park crowd will be singing them together: Tremble Stranger.