England bowl up for mystery tour

Many a player has lost his place in unfortunate circumstances and then struggled to get back into the team. Paul Collingwood, who scored a century against Jamaica last week, might take some shifting if he gets a chance here.

In 1998, batsmen could have been excused for queuing up to miss the First Test, so desperately bad was that Sabina Park surface.

This time, though, everyone is agreed the pitch should be fine. And almost everyone, it seems, expects two strong-looking batting departments to dominate a couple of inexperienced and quite probably erratic attacks.

" Questions will be asked about the bowlers in both teams," said West Indies captain Brian Lara.

"I don't think it's a series where you can predict what's going to happen."

England used to wonder whether they would ever beat West Indies while Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose were still in tandem. Well, they eventually managed it - during the summer of 2000 - when those two thoroughbreds were just about on their last bowling legs.

This time, Michael Vaughan & Co know little about the men bearing down on them, apart from what they've seen on video.

But Fidel Edwards, Tino Best, Adam Sanford and Corey Collymore - with only 24 Tests and 77 wickets between them so far - have the backing of Lara and chairman of selectors Viv Richards so they clearly carry some threat.

Steve Harmison, Matthew Hoggard, Simon Jones and Andrew Flintoff, England's likely pace quartet, have more miles on the clock. But after a combined total of 65 appearances they still have a lot of questions to answer. There is one obvious difference between the two teams, though, and it could enable Vaughan's team to finish on top - not only here, where West Indies have won their last five Tests against all-comers, including Australia, but also at the end of the series.

Lara will rely on part-time spinners such as Ramnaresh Sarwan and Chris Gayle whereas Vaughan can expect his big mate, Ashley Giles, to find some turn here and elsewhere throughout the Caribbean.

Everyone, friend and foe alike, will keep reminding England that they have not won a Test series in the West Indies for 36 years.

Clearly, this is the best chance yet and with only three players - Nasser Hussain, Graham Thorpe and Butcher - having toured here before, Vaughan is right to stress there are "no cobwebs of the past" to worry most of this squad.

Butcher can only hope to be part of the immediate future.

At least he is still in there fighting today, unlike the unlucky Dwayne Smith who has already been ruled out of the West Indies lineup because of a dislocated finger.