In the words of West Indies captain Brian Lara, his side has returned to their “comfort zone” after being pounded in South Africa looking to keep England waiting to end 36 fruitless years in the Caribbean.

“History is a big thing and we have to maintain it and there’s a little more pressure on England to overturn it,” Lara told reporters on the eve of the match.

“Of course, there’s some pressure on us, but it’s an exciting time for us. We don’t want to be the ones to spoil it (the record).

“Even though many of the players are inexperienced, they know about the record. They know what they have to do to maintain it. And they know that the people in the Caribbean are looking forward to them protecting it.”

Michael Vaughan’s side is looking to become the first England team to win in the Caribbean since Colin Cowdrey’s squeezed out a 1-0 win in 1968.

“None of our players were born 36 years ago, and there’s only three players who have been on any (Test) tours out here,” the England captain said.

Vaughan added: “It can be good to have the experience, but it’s also a good thing that we’ve got players who have no cobwebs about playing out in the Caribbean and are coming out here totally fresh.

“We’re going to take it as a huge motivation - 36 years not winning out here is a long time, and we’ve got two months to try and create our own history.”

Vaughan and his side are taking solace in the decline in the strength of their opponents and the knowledge that West Indies have lost recent home series against South Africa, New Zealand and Australia.

With no specialist spin bowler in their line-up, West Indies have opted for left-handed spin bowling all-rounder Ryan Hinds, instead of Ricardo Powell, for the final batting spot left vacant by injury to batsman Dwayne Smith.

With left-hander Mark Butcher passed fit late yesterday, England have a full squad from which to choose and will only have to settle on the composition of their pace attack.

Simon Jones and Steve Harmison will share the new ball, leaving Matthew Hoggard, the likely candidate, and James Anderson to fight it out for the one remaining place.

England would have bad memories of the Sabina Park pitch that forced the cancellation of the first Test of the 1998 series, the first time in history of cricket that a Test had been abandoned in this manner.

Those fears can be put to bed. The two teams have been told to expect a hard, true pitch, where batsmen and bowlers can excel with the right amount of application.

Sabina Park has become a bastion of West Indian fortitude in recent times.

They have won the last five Tests there against Australia in 1999, Zimbabwe in 2000, South Africa in 2001, India in 2002 and Sri Lanka last year handsomely.

Their previous defeat at the ground was inflicted by Australia, who clinched the Sir Frank Worrell Trophy in 1994-95 and started their rise to becoming the leading cricket nation in the world today.

England’s last victory -- by nine wickets -- came in the 1990 series.

Squads:

WEST INDIES: Brian Lara (captain), Chris Gayle, Devon Smith, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ryan Hinds, Ridley Jacobs, Corey Collymore, Adam Sanford, Tino Best and Fidel Edwards.

ENGLAND (from): Michael Vaughan (captain), Marcus Trescothick, Mark Butcher, Nasser Hussain, Graham Thorpe, Andrew Flintoff, Chris Read, Ashley Giles, Simon Jones, Matthew Hoggard, Steve Harmison and James Anderson.

UMPIRES: Daryl Harper, Billy Bowden.