Windies need a fast one

Lawson is regarded as the best of an emerging crop of fast bowlers in the Caribbean, who have the ability to arrest the region's startling decline in pace bowling.

Regularly timed at 92mph, he burst on to the scene with six for three against whipping boys Bangladesh and followed that up with a hat-trick against Australia in Barbados on what Steve Waugh described as the slowest wicket he had ever played on.

In the following Test, his hostility was too much for the Australian batsmen as his seven for 78 helped set up a famous win in Antigua.

In seven Tests, Lawson has taken 29 wickets at the impressive average of

24.51 and appears destined to lead the West Indies attack for the next decade.

West Indies followers, who have watched in dismay as international batsmen have feasted on their underachieving bowlers in recent years, believe they had at last found someone worthy of following in the mighty footsteps of Malcolm Marshall, Joel Garner, Michael Holding, Colin Croft, Andy Roberts, Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh.

However, Lawson's current inactivity means those hopes might have to be slightly tempered.

Dr Michael Seepersaud, the WICB's cricket development officer, has been working with Lawson during his rehabilitation and he told Standard Sport: 'My view is that it is unlikely he will be available for the first part of the series. We would like to see him in action in a competitive game before we even consider him.

'We believe he is ready from a technical point of view. The problem is that he continues to have a problem with his lower back.

'We were hopeful that he would have played in the (domestic) Carib Beer series so we could see whether he is ready for the English tour.'

The lack of menace in the West Indies bowling - they conceded firstinnings totals of more than 500 in all four Tests of their recent series in South Africa - is a major concern for the selectors.

Like England, they are struggling to contain the world's finest batsmen and take 20 wickets in a match on flat tracks.

The players aiming to nail down the four probable seam bowling positions for the First Test are a mixture of the inexperienced and the mediocre.

Fidel Edwards, 22, Jerome Taylor, 19, and Ravi Rampaul, 19, have all burst on to the scene in the last 18 months and shown immediate promise. However, the series against England might be too early for them.

The short and slingy Edwards - he is just 5ft 8in - was fast-tracked into the West Indies squad after impressing Brian Lara in the nets before a Test match in Barbados last year.

He is capable of extreme pace - he was regularly clocked at 95mph in South Africa - and bowls a superb yorker but is raw and has still to convince that he knows where the ball is going.

Taylor has yet to translate first-class promise into international reality in his three Tests and is out of action after being injured in a recent domestic game.

Rampaul has impressed with his accuracy and temperament but has only played in one-day internationals.

It is unlikely that any of the more experienced West Indies pacemen will be giving nightmares to Michael Vaughan's men as they board the plane at Heathrow tomorrow.

Mervyn Dillon, 29, has played in 38 Tests with some success but is inconsistent and his status as the spearhead of the attack sums up the decline of pace bowling in the Caribbean.

Corey Collymore, 26, robbed of his initial natural pace by a career-threatening injury, and Adam Sanford, 28, have done little to suggest they are anything more than medium pace journeymen. Vasbert Drakes, 34, is over the hill and his relatively recent elevation to Test cricket says more about the Windies' paltry resources than his late-flowering talent.

Pedro Collins, 27, offers variety with his left-arm seamers and can swing the ball but he lacks pace and consistency.

Others like Reon King and Nixon McLean, once hailed as the fastest bowler in the world, have fallen out of favour with the selectors and disappeared from view.

It is all a far cry from 15 years ago when the West Indies could have fielded two attacks with the ferocity to strike fear into the rest of the world.

For the West Indies, Lawson's return can't come quickly enough.