CARL HOOPER is sticking by the old adage that if it's working, don't fix it.
The West Indies captain influenced chief selector Sir Viv Richards into maintaining the combination of seven batsmen, wicket-keeper Ridley Jacobs and only three fast bowlers they have used since last June's one-day home series against New Zealand for Sunday night's World Cup opener against South Africa.
"It's often best to let the captain have his way," Richards acknowledged on radio as the West Indies' built their total of 278 for five that proved just enough for victory by three-runs.
Batting first on a true pitch in clear, warm sunshine, the team rallied from 49 for two after 20 overs behind Brian Lara's expert 116, successive partnerships with Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Hooper and a blistering finale of 63 off 28 balls between Ricardo Powell and Ramnaresh Sarwan, batting No.6 and 7.
And Hooper made it clear afterwards that it would be the continuing policy "until we get ourselves into serious trouble".
"This is the make-up we've been using for the past six to eight months and it's been working for us, three front-line bowlers and Chris (Gayle), Marlon Samuels, Ricardo Powell, Wavell Hinds and myself doing the rest," he said.
It was the balance that would continue to be used, he added - with one proviso.
"If, for argument's sake, we see the pitch is a green seamer, we'd probably contemplate playing the extra bowler but, all things being equal, that is the way we will go," he stated.
The problem for Hooper and his co-selectors at present is an embarrassment of batting riches.
Samuels clear-cut class and recent record should make him an automatic choice in the batting order. But Powell's breathtaking, unbeaten 40 off 18 deliveries on Sunday and his athletic fielding in the key positions behind point and square-leg have guaranteed him his place. Lara was simply Lara, in a class by himself, against South Africa. But Powell and Sarwan lost nothing by comparison.
Two straight drives by Powell, the first straight as an arrow off Pollock that landed on the blackened sight board for six and the other off Makhaya Ntini that passed bowler Makhaya Ntini as a white blur on its way to the boundary, were two of the most fiercely struck strokes of the match, Lara's and South African Lance Klusener's included.
Discarded by the previous selectors for his inconsistency, Powell was recalled by the Richards panel last September and has responded by tempering his extravagant strokeplay.
In India and Bangladesh and now here, his methods have become more orthodox but no less effective.
Sarwan has developed into the West Indies equivalent of Michael Bevan, regarded as the best "finisher" over the closing overs in the limiting overs game. In India, he was unbeaten 83, 39 and 88 in three of his seven innings and 102 in his second of three.
But his 32 off 15 balls, with a couple of thumping sixes, was more reminiscent of his unbeaten 72 off 54 balls at No.6 against Australia in a practice match prior to the Champions Trophy in Colombo last September.
The only likely change in Thursday's eleven would involve Pedro Collins who, apart from the major wicket of Jacques Kallis to a perfectly pitched delivery angled away from it, had an indifferent match Sunday.
He was taken for 54 from nine overs and his carelessness in catching the rampant Klusener at long-leg off Gayle and then stepping back onto the ropes prevented a more comfortable victory - created hundreds of thousands of heart palpitations throughout the Caribbean
There are five more group matches and five after that if the West Indies advance to the final, the odds on which have dropped as rapidly as the stock exchange.
Their next encounter in Port Elizabeth on Thursday against New Zealand whose chances diminished with defeat to Sri Lanka in Blomfontein yesterday.
The New Zealanders have already declared they will not fulfil their fixture against Kenya in Nairobi because of fears over security following the terrorist bomb that killed 14 in a hotel in the second city of Mombasa late last year.
It basically means the New Zealanders would have to win all their remaining matches against South Africa, the West Indies, Bangladesh and Canada - or depend on an unusual sequence of results - to advance.
As far as Hooper is concerned, Sunday's victory over South Africa was just what was needed.
"It sets up the tournament for us in that we're off to a good start," he said. "The manner in which we came back after the start we had to make 270-odd was really great. Its brought a lot of confidence in the side."
And confidence is a commodity is short supply in West Indies teams in the recent past.