Vin­ode Mam­chan

Some days lo­cal fans are frus­trat­ed by the per­for­mance of the West In­dies crick­et team, yes­ter­day they were left frus­trat­ed with the drainage sys­tem at the Queen's Park Oval, as un­der bril­liant sun­shine, there was no play on the sched­uled sec­ond day of the Fourth Sea­grams Test match be­cause of as un­fit play­ing field.

West In­dies were to re­sume on their overnight score of 62/2 but the play­ers stayed at the Hy­att Re­gency un­til lunchtime. When they ar­rived there was no pos­si­bil­i­ty of go­ing out on the field as the damp are­na pre­vent­ed even a warm-up ses­sion.

West In­dies Crick­et Board (WICB) head grounds­man Ken Crafton speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia said the sit­u­a­tion arose from prob­lems with the drainage. "We have not been able to go out there for ac­tion be­cause the ground is wet. Every hour we would go and have a look and yet with bril­liant sun­shine the ground is still not get­ting dri­er. The prob­lem here is one of drainage. Mov­ing for­ward the au­thor­i­ties here have to look at the use of the ground. When you have plen­ty us­age, there is not enough time to have the out­field pre­pared as you would like.

"The con­trac­tor who was sup­posed to have the out­field aer­at­ed did not have the time to work on it and hence the prob­lems. If he could have got­ten the chance to work, then you would have found that sur­face mois­ture would have evap­o­rat­ed quick­er.

Rain has been mak­ing an un­wel­come ap­pear­ance at reg­u­lar times dur­ing this se­ries and start­ed in the sec­ond Test in Ja­maica, with on­ly 16 overs play pos­si­ble on the fourth day. Then the third day of the St Lu­cia Test was washed out and on the open­ing day of this match, on­ly 22 overs were pos­si­ble.

In that time West In­dies lost the wick­ets caught at short leg for nine of the bowl­ing of Is­hant Shar­ma and Dar­ren Bra­vo, bowled by Ravi Ash­win for 10. At the crease and hop­ing to re­sume to­day will be open­er Kraigg Brath­waite on 31 and Mar­lon Samuels four not out.