FOR an agonising hour or two here yesterday, the West Indies were dreading the real prospect of having to do without their captain and inspiration, Brian Lara, in the second Test against South Africa, starting here tomorrow.
Batting at the team's final, full-fledged net practice before the match, Lara took a blow on the left forearm from a fast bowler from the KwaZulu-Natal provincial under-19 team that left him writhing in pain.
He was quickly attended to by team physiotherpist Sunet Leibenberg and dispatched to a nearby hospital where, happily, an x-ray revealed no fracture.
Since it was the same arm on which his elbow was so badly dislocated in a one-day international in Sri Lanka almost exactly two years ago - it put him out of the game for three months - the fear of serious damage was understandable.
Coach Gus Logie said afterwards there was bruising and, with 48 hours between the incident and the first ball tomorrow morning, Lara was not expected to be in any great discomfort batting.
Corey Collymore
Already, the West Indies must enter the match without Chris Gayle, their established opening batsman and steady off-spinner, and Corey Collymore, their leading wicket-taker since his return to the Test team five Tests ago.
Hamstring injuries of varying intensity finally eliminated both from consideration yesterday.
To have also lost Lara would have removed a revitalised leader and Test cricket's most feared and, since his reinstatement as captain last March, most consistent batsman from an insecure middle order.
In the nine Tests since then, Lara has reeled off three single and two double hundreds, against bowling as varied as Australia, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and South Africa, including his 202 in the first Test in Johannesburg.
His 1,261 runs, the most by anyone for the year, have been compiled at an average of 78.81.
It is compelling evidence of his renewed zest for the game. Just as significantly, his influence off, as much as on, the field underscored his stated resolve to transform the young team with which he has been entrusted from easy-beats to respected competitors.
It was an attitude patently lacking in his first tenure at the helm. He himself has proclaimed that it a "different Brian Lara" second time round and it shows.
The West Indies without him at the moment would be like Christmas without Santa Claus.
As it is, barring some further mishap at the team's Christmas lunch today - and, given the epidemic of injuries that has already swept through the team, it cannot be discounted - Lara will cross yet another landmark when he takes the field.
He becomes the sixth on an eminent list of West Indians who have endured the vagaries of international sport to complete 100 Tests.
None has survived as many as Lara in the dozen years in which, in equal measure, he has captivated the cricket world with his magical batting and bewildered it with his mystifying mood changes.
He is now 34 and, given that Clive Lloyd, the first West Indian to 100 Tests, carried on until he was 40, there is ample time for him to set more records and to achieve his goal of lifting the West Indies out of their present, humiliating eighth position on the International Cricket Council (ICC) Test rankings, above only Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.
After encouraging returns at home last season in the remarkable, last Test victory that avoided a clean sweep by Australia and the series triumph over Sri Lanka, South Africa away presents the first genuine test of what advance, if any, Lara's West Indies have made.
The returns so far have been discouraging.
They were severely hindered by injuries that denied them the use of a fast bowler for all but a few overs in the two preceding Tests in Zimbabwe, where they were hard-pressed to draw the first Test and win the second.
Gayle's severely torn left hamstring on the first day rendered him a virtual non-participant in the first Test when Collymore's effectiveness was limited by a similar, if less serious injury.
With three of the original selectees. Marlon Samuels, Jerome Taylor and Omari Banks, all forced to return home at the start of the South African tour, the West Indies are reduced to choosing from ill-prepared replacements, Dwayne Smith, Adam Sanford and Dave Mohammed.
None had played any first-class cricket since the end of the home season last April before the match against Border last weekend that was reduced from four to two days by rain.
The upshot is that Smith, the 20-year-old Barbadian with a brief and modest first-class record, is likely to come in for Gayle and bat at No.6 in his Test debut and Sanford, the strongly-built, Dominica-born Antiguan policeman, will have his first Test since June 2002 as Collymore's replacement.
Smith was given lengthy batting in the nets and a testing session of slip catching yesterday, a clear indication of his preference over Carlton Baugh, the reserve wicket-keeper who is a also a most capable batsman.
Sanford's five wickets in the only Border innings possible - against none for 19-year-old Ravi Rampaul and Mohammed's expensive three - make him the clear-cut choice.
Far from being troubled by injuries, South Africa can strengthen their batting with the return of experienced left-handed batsman Gary Kirsten, for his 98th Test, and left-arm googly specialist, Paul Adams, their only spinner with over 100 Test wickets.
Kirsten missed the Johannesburg Test to be with his wife for the birth of the couple's first child, a boy who arrived on the second day of the match.
An opener most of his career, he is expected to bat No.5 at the expense of Neil McKenzie.
Adams has recovered from split webbing in his bowling hand and takes over from Robin Peterson, the left-arm finger spinner whose record and ego were spoiled by Lara's record assault that took 28 runs of his penultimate over of the third day.
It all amounts to an overwhelming challenge for Lara and his team. They will require one of the wonders for which this special season is known, to prevent South Africa adding to their first -Test victory by 189 runs.
Teams:
South Africa (from): Graeme Smith (Captain), Mark Boucher, Paul Adams, Herschelle Gibbs, Andrew Hall, Jacques Kallis, Gary Kirsten, Neil McKenzie, Makhaya Ntini, Andre Nel, Shaun Pollock, Jacques Rudolph, Martin van Jaarsveld.
West Indies (likely): Brian Lara (Captain),Ramnaresh Sarwan (vice-captain), Shivanarine Chanderpaul, Merv Dillon, Vasbert Drakes, Fidel Edwards, Daren Ganga, Wavell Hinds, Ridley Jacobs, Adam Sandford, Dwayne Smith.
Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle (Sri Lanka).
Umpires: Simon Taufel and Darrel Hair (Australia).