AS yet another dismal overseas tour nears its end, the West Indies can at least take heart from the steady improvement of the youngest member of the team.
Ravi Rampaul's solid performance, in the second one-day international against South Africa in Port Elizabeth on Wednesday, provided some compensation for the misfortune that prematurely ended what would have been an important learning experience for some other promising beginners.
In his first appearance in an international match in South Africa, the 19-year-old Trinidadian fast bowler bounced out Jacques Kallis, scorer of a hundred in each of his previous five matches against the West Indies, with his fifth ball.
After surprising him with a sharp lifter fourth ball, he followed with another next ball, Kallis miscued his hook and Corey Collymore didn't have to move for the catch at long-leg.
Rampaul's nine overs of pace and control yielded only 33, he calmly gathered the kind of catch at long-on that has often panicked others on this tour and saved some face for the team, if not the match, with a pugnacious 24 batting at No.10.
There are three more matches in the series for him to further advertise his worth at the highest level - but they could well be reduced to two following a couple of days of heavy and persistent rain in Durban.
Even if the forecast for improving weather proves correct - and in spite of a 2.30 pm start and a fast drying Kingsmead ground - prospects for a full match are slim.
The most hopeful expectation is for a considerable reduction in the number of overs, an abbreviation that transforms the contest into a lottery.
Already two down, the West Indies must complete their first victory over South Africa on this tour to keep the series alive, however the contest is eventually structured.
Rampaul's involvement has been another step up the ladder.
It started with his role in the West Indies' triumph in the Costcutter Cup, the virtual under-15s World Cup, in England in 2000 and in the team that reached the semi-final of the under-19 World Cup in New Zealand early last year.
Once his first senior tour ends next week, he flies to Bangladesh to join the West Indies team for his second under-19 World Cup.
While Jerome Taylor, another exciting 19-year-old fast bowler, Omari Banks, the tall, 21-year-old all-rounder, and Marlon Samuels, the highly talented, 22-year-old batsman, all had to return home after the preceding tour of Zimbabwe with various injuries, Rampaul has remained fit throughout.
With the staunch support and advice of Merv Dillon, the experienced fellow Trinidadian fast bowler, he has run in enthusiastically, bowled with pace and purpose whenever given the chance and has been rewarded with increasingly encouraging returns.
He was unperturbed when he failed to take a wicket in four one-day internationals in Zimbabwe for it was not that he was bowling badly.
It wasn't long before success followed in South Africa - five for 55 in an innings against Free State in the first provincial match, six for 122 in the later match against Easterns.
If the opposition was hardly international standard, they were figures that indicated progress.
Confirmation came against the stronger batsmen of South Africa 'A' in the day-night match at Paarl prior to the one-day internationals.
His two victims in 10 overs from which he conceded only 23 were Test players, Martin van Jaarsveld and Nicky Boje.
Sir Viv Richards, Brian Lara and the other tour selectors were justifiably reluctant to expose a fledgling teenager to South Africa's run-hungry batsmen on flat pitches in the Tests. They - and he - can wait for that inevitable elevation. But, after the debacle of the 209-run defeat in the first ODI in Cape Town on Sunday and signs that the aging Vasbert Drakes was feeling the strain of the extended tour, the time was ripe for Rampaul's introduction for Wednesday.