IT used to be Kensington Oval but Sabina Park has become the new bastion of West Indies cricket through the lean times of the past eight years.
The West Indies return to the celebrated old ground in the heart of Kingston today for the last and, arguably, their most important Test of a prolonged season. Given its recent record, it should be a happy homecoming.
Sabina has hosted four successive West Indies’ Test victories since 1999 - over Australia, Zimbabwe, South Africa and India - and has not witnessed defeat since Australia’s innings victory in 1995.
That triumph secured the series and reclaimed the Frank Worrell Trophy for Australia. It also sent the West Indies’ into a free fall to unprecedented depths that is yet to be arrested.
Based on the development of a group of talented, young players under Brian Lara in his second coming as captain and in spite of losses in the preceding Test and one-day series against Australia, there have been signs that the decline is about to be turned around.
The second of two Tests against Sri Lanka over the next five days should provide useful, if not conclusive, answers to questions of potential and character posed throughout the past two and a half months by Australia, the team ranked at the top of the class in both forms of the game, and now Sri Lanka.
At the end, the West Indies should have a clearer view of where they stand in the scheme of things and what the future holds.
Coach Gus Logie noted yesterday that the team enters the match on the back of their stunning, record-breaking victory in the last Test over Australia and a strong performance in the rain-ruined first Test against Sri Lanka in St.Lucia that ended in a draw on Monday.
Throughout his tenure, he has challenged his players to come up with relevant motivational slogans and he chose Merv Dillon’s as the most appropriate for this match.
“It’s ‘ when you’re ahead, stay ahead’ and we are confident that we are now ahead after our last two Tests,” explained Logie, whose enthusiasm and diligence in a difficult, stop-gap position have been a genuine factor in maintaining the team’s self belief.
His fast bowlers, previously neutered by lifeless pitches everywhere except the Antigua Recreation Ground, should like what they saw prepared in the middle yesterday.
“There is more grass on the surface than we have had in any of the previous Tests and there seems to be a little moisture there,” Logie said. “I would expect the bowlers to get something out of it.”
But he added an obvious condition that India failed to appreciate when they had first use of an equally grassy pitch last year and Chris Gayle and Wavell Hinds set the West Indies on their course for victory with an opening stand of 111..
“Whatever the conditions, you’ve still got to bowl well and you’ve still got to get support in the field,” he said.
“I’m satisfied we did that in the St.Lucia Test,” he added. “We bowled with good control and the bowlers were well supported in the field. We held every catch that came and I thought our ground fielding was good.”
The upshot was that Sri Lanka were dismissed for 354 on an easy-paced pitch on which the West Indies replied with 477 for nine declared.
Yet the bowling failed to polish off the innings quickly, the last two wickets stalling for two hours to add 66. A livelier pitch and, equally essential, livelier bowling would prevent that.
The fast bowling options were increased to five, out of the squad of 14, with the surprise addition of the 21-year-old Barbadian Fidel Edwards, for precisely the expectation that Sabina would carry the same grass it did last year against India.
The selectors would have been tempted to revert to their once standard pace quartet they have not used since the first Test against Australia. But it would have meant upsetting the balance of the eleven and excluding Omari Banks, the most successful of the newcomers.
Sri Lankan coach Duleep Mendes, also influenced by the appearance of the pitch, said yesterday they would bolster their fast bowling.
The quality left-armer Chaminda Vaas and Prabath Nissanka, the only two pacers in the first Test, are likely to be joined by Dharshana Gamage, like Nissanka tall and brisk.
No matter what the conditions, Sri Lanka’s key to dismissing the opposition is as always, and as much, Muttiah Muralitheran as Lara is the West Indies’ key to countering his mysterious mixture of off and top spin.
Lara, clearly relishing his renewed responsibility, has been the master since his phenomenal series in Sri Lanka in 2001 when he amassed 688 runs in the third Tests. He carried on where he left off then with his 209 in St.Lucia.
But neither Muralitheran nor Lara can win a Test on his own. It is the support they get that from their team mates that will determine the outcome.