WI may rest Lara vs MCC

ARUNDEL: Four weeks after they arrived in the British Isles, the West Indies play the opening First-Class match of their three-month tour against a strong MCC team, starting today at the picturesque ground at Arundel, as they change gears from the hectic one-day game to the traditional variety. Reaching the final of the NatWest Series, where they were soundly beaten by New Zealand at Lord’s at the weekend, represented a degree of progress for a team still struggling to establish a reasonable degree of consistency.

However it is by their performance in the upcoming four-Test series that they will ultimately be measured and this first of two three-day fixtures is not expected to be the leisurely light-hearted affair normally associated with matches played in the shadow of Arundel Castle in south-western England. Fixtures scheduled here on previous tours were usually against invitational teams featuring a mixture of former players and up-and-coming youngsters.  But with the English intent on showing that the 3-0 whipping of the West Indies in the Caribbean earlier this year was no fluke, their selectors are using this match to prepare a few of their key players for the series beginning in just nine days at Lord’s. The MCC team, to be led by the former Essex player John Stephenson, includes England’s most experienced middle-order batsman, Graham Thorpe, and two members of their successful fast bowling armoury of three months ago — Matthew Hoggard and Simon Jones.

A fourth Test player was originally selected but Mark Butcher has been replaced by Michael Powell in the final eleven as he battles to recover from a thigh strain sustained while playing for his county, Surrey, in a Twenty20 match five days ago. It is a predicament similar to what the gritty left-handed batsman faced prior to the First Test in Jamaica last March when he sustained an ankle injury but recovered in time to play a key role in a stunning victory that set the tone for the series. None of the quartet featured in the NatWest Series, although Butcher has since had a change of heart and is now making himself available for England’ s one-day team.  While their international team-mate spends time on the treatment table, Thorpe, Hoggard and Jones will be seeking to round into top form in the longer version of the game as the surfeit of limited-over cricket on the domestic scene in England for the past month leaves them short of vital first-class match practice.

Thorpe, whose gutsy hundred in Bridgetown was pivotal in England’s series-clinching victory, was the last of the MCC batsmen to enjoy a knock at Arundel yesterday before the West Indies squad went through their paces in a two-and-a-half-hour session in conditions that remained generally cloudy although it was not as bitterly cold as in recent days. The tour selectors have delayed naming the final eleven until just before the start of play but it is anticipated that at least two of the four players who have featured in every match on the tour so far will be rested. The quartet comprises skipper Brian Lara, vice-captain Ramnaresh Sarwan, opener Chris Gayle and experienced middle-order batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul. As much as the fans coming to Arundel will be hoping to see the best of Lara, as he showed in hammering a hundred against Zimbabwe when the West Indies last played at the ground five years ago, concerns of the team are paramount and there is every likelihood that he will be one of the two rested.

While the inclusion of reserve wicketkeeper Carlton Baugh for veteran Ridley Jacobs is almost taken for granted, and the selection of Antiguan batsman Sylvester Joseph seems equally certain, there is still doubt about whether the other three players specially picked for the Tests — Pedro Collins, Fidel Edwards and Omari Banks — will all be included in this fixture. A second three-day match against Sri Lanka “A”, starting Saturday at Shenley, just north of London, may be seen as an opportunity to rest another two established players while others jostle to attract the selectors’ attention.