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Swinging conditions at Durban can floor the West Indies

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The Hawkeye View - Ed Hawkins tells us why the West Indies' awful record on swinging wickets suggests South Africa should secure a series win

THEY sure do have swing in the Caribbean. Unfortunately for the West Indies' cricketers it is the musical kind and not the sort which makes a cricket ball bend and dip. When the third and deciding Test against South Africa begins in Durban on Thursday, West Indies could be made painfully aware of that fact.

From the point of view that West Indies' batsmen need to get to grips with the moving ball, they could not have chosen a better venue than Kingsmead, which is a stone's throw from the ocean. When the tide is in it swings. When it is humid it swings. In short, it swings quite a lot.

But from the point of view that the whole world wants to see a resurgence in the West Indies' game, the venue could not be worse, particularly as Chris Gayle's team have given a South Africa side who were as short as [1.09] to win the series an almighty fright.

You see, West Indies fall from grace as a cricketing super power can not only be attributed to a halt of the production line which produced fast bowlers, the lure of basketball in the US or shambolic administration by the West Indies Cricket Board. It can also be partly blamed on Caribbean cricketers not learning about playing swing bowling.

Since the supply of West Indies players to county cricket slowed to a trickle, they have struggled on swinging pitches (of the current crop only Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Dwayne Bravo, Daren Powell have played for county sides and in barely a handful of games to boot).

A survey of the Test arenas (England: Lord's, Headingley; New Zealand: Wellington, Auckland, Napier, Hamilton; South Africa: Kingsmead Sri Lanka: Kandy) which have been conducive to swing bowling over the last few years highlight West Indies' big weakness and there were even hints of it when they were still pretty good. It does not make for good reading for punters who have taken the [7.8] about the tourists winning in Durban and securing their first series success against an established Test nation since 1995.

At Lord's, which so often assists swing bowlers under the heavy London skies, they have lost three of their last four, including a defeat in 2000 when they were shot out for 54. That is a crucial example because the Windies were still pretty good then. They still had Lara, Walsh and Ambrose to call on. Up at Headingley they were bowled out for 141 and 146 last summer, 172 and 61 in 2000 and as far back as 1991 they were skittled for 173 and 162.

In New Zealand, where so many visiting sides have struggled because of swing, West Indies' batting has failed time and again. Only once in their last eight digs in a match of two innings or more have they passed 300. Unsurprisingly they have lost four of the last five, including being bowled out for 97 in 1999.

Punters who bet on England's recent tour to Sri Lanka will remember how the ball moved at the Asgiriya Stadium in Kandy. You have to delve a bit further back into the memory bank to recall how the Windies have fared there. But you won't be surprised. In two defeats they were all out for 191, 190, 148 and 137.

And finally to Kingsmead, the most relevant of the grounds for this study. West Indies have lost both of their matches there, have never scored more than 329 and were dismissed for 198 and 264 when asked to bat first on each occasion.

To be fair, most teams falter in Durban because of the dominance of swing bowlers. You just need to look at the list of bowlers who have been most successful there to realise willowmen are going to have a bad time. Shaun Pollock, with 39 victims, has taken more wickets than anyone else and his team-mate Makhaya Ntini is next with 37. Dale Steyn, the South African newbie should be licking his lips.

For punters looking for an extra edge, bear in mind that the average first innings score for visitors in the last 16 Tests in Durban is a lowly 229. So we shouldn't expect West Indies to fare too well in their first innings. But they might learn something.

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