[b]England arrived in the Caribbean with understandable hope. The days of the humiliating series whitewashes had long gone and it was plain the Caribbean men were no longer the invincible force they had been a decade or so earlier. The pack was getting closer, the quicker ones even nipping at their heels.
Their two previous encounters were close-run affairs. England lost 1-2 on their 1989-90 visit, and would probably have won but for rain and some time-wasting tactics in Trinidad; tactics for which Brian Lara expressed shame during his recent MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey lecture at Lord’s.
The 1991 tour ended 2-2 with England winning at Headingley, on the back of Graham Gooch’s superhuman 154, and at the Oval, when Phillip Tufnell’s off-spin triggered a stunning collapse. The West Indies won convincingly at Trent Bridge and at Egbaston, while the Lord’s Test was being fairly evenly contested until ruined by rain.
Yet, though the cracks in West Indies cricket’s body politic were apparent, the side were still formidable. Ambrose and Walsh were a deadly pairing and were ably supported by the two Benjamins from Antigua, Winston and Kenny. The batting was holding its own as well. The emperor, Viv Richards, had gone. Richie Richardson, however, was largely thought to have inherited his countryman’s crown, even as everyone understood he was only holding it until the rightful heir came of age.
The Prince of Port of Spain was already hitting his stride, as his regal 277 in Sydney showed. And by the time the series concluded Lara had wrested the record Test score from his hero, Sir Garfield Sobers (who was on hand to congratulate Lara when he broke his record in Antigua), and would soon add the record for highest first-class score, 499, then held by Hanif Mohammad.
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The Cricket Paper
