Test previews / Ed Hawkins / 03 February 2009 / Leave a comment

Ed Hawkins looks ahead to the First Test at Sabina Park and a pitch that promises to deteriorate. Neither of the sides is necesssarily to be trusted with your money but one man you can trust to score heavily is Shivnarine Chanderpaul.

It could well be more collapso than calypso when the first Test of a four-game series between West Indies and England begins tomorrow afternoon at Sabina Park, Jamaica. A pitch which has the potential for deterioration and two sides whose confidence crumbled long ago are not the most reliable of combinations.

England are favourites at [2.54] to take a 1-0 lead with West Indies [3.6] and the draw standing at [3.00], a good indication of how cricket watchers do not trust the pitch or the players despite scattered showers forecast for three of the five days.

Sabina Park has a reputation for being fast, but in what could be a euphemism for the series, it is not as quick as it used to be. This is the surface on which in 2004 Steve Harmison terrorised West Indies batsmen, taking seven for 12 as the hosts were hurried out and humbled for 47.

Since then Harmison, who finished with 23 wickets on that tour, has proved to be an enigma. He was touted as the best fast bowler in the world in the aftermath but it is telling that since he topped England's wicket-taking chart on that trip, he has never repeated the feat abroad.

Like Harmison, Sabina Park has lost its venom. The last time a Test was played there Australia were the visitors and both batting sides made serene progress. Australia posted 431 and West Indies 312.

In the third and fourth innings, however, batting was not so easy thanks to uneven bounce. The Aussies were shot out for 167 with Dwayne Bravo's medium pace claiming four wickets and then Stuart Clarke, he of "slow and steady wins the race" fame, claimed five to give Australia victory.

The last three matches have been won by the side batting first, a sequence which began after Harmison's heroics.

West Indies and England are different teams from those days. The hosts have improved marginally but they could hardly have got any worse. They have just four wins in the last five years and although two of those have come in their last 10 Tests, it is stretching the imagination to suggest they are a value bet.

In the last six matches at Sabina Park West Indies have been defeated and they have won only one of their first Tests from their last 13 series at home.

England, of course, would have been all change anyway without the fallout between Kevin Pietersen and Peter Moores. New captain Andrew Strauss should be a steadying influence, however, although he will have quite a trend to reverse if his team are to start with a win. England's away record is unimpressive - they have not won the first Test of an away series since 2004 when they beat South Africa in Port Elizabeth. Mediocrity rules then.

That is until when we see the name Shivnarine Chanderpaul. The crab-style left-hander is so consistent that when an opportunity arises to bet on him one feels it must be taken. He scored 188 in the first innings against Australia on this ground last time and in his last two Tests against England scored 372 runs. And he was out only twice. Devon Smith, the obdurate opening batsman, is one to be aware of, too if he plays. He scored a century against England at Sabina five years ago.

For England, Strauss and Pietersen have been the two most impressive batsmen in the warm up games. Pietersen has top-scored in the first innings in two of England's last three first Tests abroad and Strauss managed it in the other one.

Andrew Flintoff expects to be fit after overcoming a side problem. Don't expect him to be as quick as he used to be, either.