OTTIS GIBSON and Courtney Browne have spent as much time over the past month in Sri Lanka experiencing the effects of global warming on what should be the end of the annual monsoon season as on what their principal mission was meant to be.
At the end of another day abbreviated by the ever present rain under miserable, grey skies yesterday, head coach Gibson and travelling selector Browne had lost a cumulative 625 overs of the allocated minimum of the 1 460 overs they should have had for their assessments in the three Tests. Even the solitary preparatory match had the last two of its three days washed out.
Those here with long memories and detailed statistics cannot recall an international tour so decimated by the weather.
Yet it has not been a complete exercise in futility for the West Indies. Short as it has been, there have been some unmistakeable signs, both hopeful and worrying, to guide Gibson and Browne.
The batting form of Dwayne Bravo at No. 6 and the new captain Darren Sammy at No. 8 (35 between them in six innings), the late order collapses (six for 21 in the first Test, five for 38 in the second, five for 33 in the third before Sulieman Benn and Kemar Roach checked it yesterday), the failure to cause the same problems to the opposition, the flawed catching and the suspect
If they do not entirely counterbalance such concerns, there were also developments to cheer Gibson, Browne and a West Indian public yearning for a revival.
The most exciting, by some distance, was Darren Bravo’s impressive introduction into Test cricket. But Kemar Roach’s role as the only penetrative bowler leading the attack and Brendan Nash’s continuing example of application and cricketing intelligence were others. Â
The younger Bravo’s credentials as a batsman of the future, with his complete, uncanny resemblance to Brian Lara, a family relation, had already been established, more especially with the ‘A’ team in Bangladesh and England earlier in the year.
 His class was confirmed each time he batted – 58 in the first Test, 80 in the second and 68 in the third. His dazzling strokeplay was stirring enough but it was the way he responded to potentially precarious situations that added a new dimension to his quality.
In Galle, on debut, he could follow in the slipstream of the dominant Chris Gayle while on the way to his 333. In his next two innings, he had to take the lead himself.
In Colombo, he negotiated the troubles of seven for one, 51 for two and 77 for three (with the two battle hardened veterans, Gayle and Shivnarine Chanderpaul among them).
Nothing seemed more certain than a hundred when he suddenly lost concentration at 80 and succumbed to an ugly shot, something of which he is usually incapable.
Here in Pallekelle, he had to make the long trek from the dressing room to the ground, down more than 40 steps, after the dismissal of Gayle to the first ball of the match.
If he carried any tension with him, it was not evident. He might have been in a Saturday afternoon match for his club, Queen’s Park.
Such confidence settled his partner, Devon Smith, a long-serving if underachieving campaigner drafted into his first Test in a year and a half on the late withdrawal of Adrian Barath with flu.
By the time Smith succumbed on the back foot to Ajantha Mendis, the damage had been repaired in a partnership of 115.
Bravo’s disappointment on falling lbw early next day was obvious and understandable. Yet again a hundred beckoned.
Whatever the take is on Ramnaresh Sarwan’s omission from this team, it thrust the younger Bravo into the crucial No. 3 position and tested his temperament. He passed with flying colours.
As the team was constituted, he was unlikely to have featured in the starting XI otherwise. In the circumstances, it was a blessing in disguise; the batting will be further bolstered when Sarwan returns.
In Colombo, Bravo had Nash with him for 20 overs to steady the innings in a stand of 83.
Except for their left-handedness, they are as different in their methods as the steel pan is from the didgeridoo. Bravo’s play is all sweet rhythm, all beautiful cover drives and wristy flicks. Nash’s is staccato, more leg-side nudges and deflections with the occasional cut that is favoured by all left-handers.
His main strength is not technical but mental, critical at the highest level in all sport but lacking in several more naturally gifted West Indies batsmen of late.
Nash has a quick grasp of any given situation and plays accordingly. Above all, he appreciates the value of partnerships of which, in his 18 Tests, he has shared two of 234 and 220 (both with Chanderpaul) and four others over 100 (in order, with Chanderpaul, Gayle, Narsingh Deonarine, Denesh Ramdin).
He fell one short of adding another with Chanderpaul in this Test, his approach emphasising his acumen.
When he filled the breach after Bravo was out within the first half-hour of the day, Chanderpaul was struggling to establish himself. Nash understood that he could not allow the momentum established by Bravo to flag.
He, for a change, would have to take command.
It was a bold, necessary and successful ploy. He gathered his first 30 at a run-a-ball, swept past Chanderpaul to his 50 and reclaimed the initiative.
His own early, unusual dismissal yesterday – edging a pull to a wide leg-side long-hop – would have irritated him, for he knew his work was not done. But he must also know that he is an important model for the up and coming brigade of batsmen to follow.
As for Roach, few fast bowlers have had to shoulder the burden he has since appearing for the first time against Bangladesh a year and a half ago.
He would have been third in what would have been a formidable pace attack with Fidel Edwards and Jerome Taylor, 90-miles-an-hour men with established records. Instead, he has spent his time awaiting their return from injury, providing the fire-power on his own.
In the interim, he has had a host of accomplices (Tino Best, Ravi Rampaul, Gavin Tonge, Brandon Bess, Andre Russell, Nelon Pascal and, yes, Sammy and Dwayne Bravo).
On unresponsive pitches here, he collected ten wickets in the first two Tests.
The danger is that such a solitary role will lead to the injuries that are the bane of all fast bowlers.
The return of Edwards and Taylor or, alternatively, the advance of Russell, Pascal and Shannon Gabriel cannot be too soon.
• Tony Cozier is the most experienced cricket writer and broadcaster in the Caribbean.
