Kingston Test to decide series

Other sports News

Kingston Test to decide series

Kingston (Jamaica), June 28 (IANS) The Indian and West Indian cricketers landed here Tuesday afternoon, a day after the third successive draw in the four-match series. For the best part of the month of June, after the hectic five-match one-day series in May, the teams moved from one picture-postcard Caribbean island to another -- Antigua, St Lucia, St Kitts.

Their purpose was the grim task of playing, and winning, Test matches. But the mood and setting of these tiny, tropical paradises appeared to soften the hard-nosed nature of these contests. It wasn't difficult to get seduced by the overpowering air of lazy contentment, luxuriating in posh, beachfront resorts, mingling freely with other hotel guests.

Jamaica is no less a tropical paradise. But it is not tiny, its area is over 11,000 sq km; its population is nearly three million. Kingston, its capital city, where the last Test of the series will be played from Friday, at the Sabina Park, itself sprawls over 100 sq km, between the Caribbean Sea in the south and the Blue Mountains (of coffee fame) on the north.

Kingston has that rasping, edgy buzz all modern cities have, one which is the mingling of sounds of the haves, have-nots and wannabes, the winners and the losers.

It is evident as you emerge from the the Norman Manley International Airport, just by the number of people hustling around, so different from the tiny airports in St Lucia or St Kitts or Antigua. The feeling is reinforced as you drive all the way around the Kingston Harbour and get into town.

It seems apt that this is the setting where two young teams, trying to establish their credentials as worthy Test-playing sides, with two time-tested pros - Rahul Dravid and Brian Lara -- leading them, will try to resolve the deadlock that has persisted after three Tests.

Charlie, the 62-year-old groundsman in charge of the wicket at Sabina Park, is sure there will be a winner at the end of the Test. He refuses to state anything about the nature of the wicket - 'No comment is all I can say for I have not finished preparing the pitch' - but insists that it will be one that produces a result.

It might have nothing to do with the pitch. It might just be the nature of Kingston itself. To produce winners and losers.

Latest News

Star stuff

Kingston Test to decide series