Raincoats come out as Indians wait for ‘Divine’ intervention

What they describe is best conveyed in a half page photograph in the leading daily. Raincoated groundsmen rollering a pitch under a gigantic tent. To be sure, even the pitch is uncertain. They say they did not get time to prepare the intended track, and if there’s no respite from the rain, the Test pitch it will have to be. Will it still hold terror for batsmen? Will the watering it got all of Wednesday afternoon necessitate extra armoury?

Little wonder then that the hotel has become the epicentre of busy speculation. Cricket buzz has been hushed, all of a sudden everyone is a budding meteorologist. See, that black puff flying past, the rain clouds are headed out. No, but take a look, you can’t even make out the Blue Mountain ranges just half an hour away, no match on Saturday and none on Sunday too.

The weather forecast in The Gleaner is more succinct: ‘‘Cloudy.’’ But the newspaper carries sadder reports. Elsewhere in the island the pressure weather system has driven people from their homes, Prime Minister PJ Patterson is closeted in emergency meetings to take stock of the floods.

Both teams, meanwhile, having given up on net practice, are bundled into the little gymnasium in the lower lobby, pumping iron to keep the adrenaline running high.

It is an enlightening scene. Amidst talk of the great sporting extravaganza unfolding oceans away, of the brawls expected, the goals anticipated and the scientifically calculated odds announced by bookmakers, it underlines once again the imponderables that make cricketing punditry so elusive.

Sure, the Indian batting order stands drastically bolstered — Yuvraj Singh with his youthful zest and Virender Sehwag with his daring and timing will add depth to Sachin Tendulkar’s brilliance, Saurav Ganguly’s offside exploits, Rahul Dravid’s stability and VVS Laxman’s wristy magic. But will the roll of thunder out yonder and slippery ground below discomfort them, now that skipper Ganguly has pronounced that in crunch situations India often lose it in the mind.

A crunch situation it is. India have lost a Test series that should have been theirs. That sweeping statement is based as much on a gleaning of the crossroads they failed at in the Kingston Test, but also on popular perception back home in India as well as here among a motley crew of peripatetic experts. Tolerance for meek surrender in away games is dimming, sympathetic clucks for individual performance amidst collective collapse are becoming more and more audible. A positive start in the One-dayers is critical for both this team, and Indian cricket as such.

For the West Indies, skipper Carl Hooper has upped the ante, boasting that his squad is even better attuned to the one-day variant. Here in the West Indies a revival is being sensed. These isles that make up the British Caribbean, it is feared, are drifting apart, victory is deemed important not just for this thus far demoralised cricket team but for West Indian cohesiveness.

So, come tomorrow, weather permitting, all eyes will once again be on Brian Lara. But a sense of confidence is palpable, that the hosts can even survive a dry spell from the Trinidadian… the Guyanese trio of Hooper, Chanderpaul and Sarwan has straightened the spine in the batting order, the likes of Wavell Hinds, Chris Gayle and Ridley Jacobs have finally come good. And Corey Collymore is bound to add pace to the bowling attack

But this is the television age, and the realisation has come steaming home. All of yesterday and today, hectic parleys have been in evidence. Will, can the Saturday match to rescheduled for Monday? Not a word about the effect this will have on the cricketers’ schedule, about the spectators’ expectations, the only consideration for the change is, will the television crew be able to then relocate in time for the Barbados One-dayer on May 29. Remember when sprints had to be postponed by a few minutes in the Atlanta Olympics as the American networks were still playing commercials? Well, cricket too appears to be heading for diktats from the networks.

In the meantime, the cheery forecast from Kingston is that play may still be salvaged tomorrow. Fingers crossed.