Spin or pace: Hooper is unable to decide 

Port of Spain, April 17: West Indian skipper Carl Hooper is in a dilemma whether it is spin or pace which holds the key for his team's fortunes against the Indians in the ongoing series.

Having made it known before the start of the series that he will rely mainly on his pace bowlers, Hooper is chastened by the experience in the first Test when his fast bowlers couldn't use the cushion of a 500-plus total to bowl out the Indians.

"We haven't got those quality bowlers right now, maybe sometime in the future we will have, but right now I think we need to have a little more in the wicket for our bowlers," said Hooper.

Sunil Gavaskar just can't help looking back at the kind of West Indian fast bowlers he encountered during his playing days. "It was like you never got a delivery in your half. When you got one, you sent a postcard to your mom," said the legendary Indian batsman.

These days somebody like Mervyn Dillon is bowling so many half volleys that even a positively defensive batsman like Rahul Dravid is hitting a lot of straight boundaries.

"It seems we are bowling a lot of four-hitting balls," said coach Roger Harper, making a direct reference to Dillon who was taken for no less than 18 fours by the Indian batsmen.

"They are not even fast anymore, they are bowling at 80 mph (128 kph) or thereabouts," said Michael Holding, known in cricketing circles as "whispering death."

Colin Croft, another fearsome West Indian fast bowler of the golden era of the 80s, is worried like everyone else who has the interest of Caribbean cricket in his heart. First he thought debutant Adam Sanford was nervous in his first Test. He isn't sure anymore.

"I know your captain (Sourav) Ganguly didn't look pretty in the middle, but let me tell you he would get a hundred, may be even in Barbados which is traditionally the fastest wicket in the Caribbean," said Croft, unable to hide his disgust at the quality of West Indian fast bowling during the first Test.

Sir Everton Weekes, one of the legendary three Ws of West Indian cricket, confesses he finds the Caribbean fast bowling at its lowest.

"Somebody like Reon King is so articulate when he speaks but when he bowls he does exactly the opposite," said Weekes. "I think the West Indian bowling is very, very weak at this present juncture."

Hooper says he is frustrated to see his bowlers unable to take advantage of good totals piled up by the batsmen.

"This happened to us in Sharjah (against Pakistan) and now against India," said Hooper "We somehow don't seem to have the bowlers to bowl out a team twice in a match."

Tony Becca, a celebrated West Indian cricket writer, feels too much tutoring is hampering the progress of the country's fast bowlers.

"It is the English style of coaching which is hurting the West Indian fast bowlers," said Becca. "Our fast bowlers are at their best when they just try to blast out the batsmen. Now they are coached to swing and seam the ball which is not the way it has been in our history."

Hooper is now forced to look at his spin options and that brightens up the chances of someone like Mahendra Nagamootoo for the series, even though the leg-spinner has only seven wickets from his three Tests, one from the last game for over 100 runs.

The wicket he took of course was of Sachin Tendulkar, out leg before for 79.

Tendulkar has now been dismissed six times in a row by a spinner, and some overzealous and uninformed critics even have started whispering if there was any perceived weakness which the little master has against slow bowlers.

Gavaskar, the true champion that he is, is even livid with the suggestion. "It is like saying before that he was getting out to seamers so he has a weakness against them as well."

Indeed, to say any such thing about someone who has almost 19,000 internationals runs with 59 hundreds from 13 years of top class cricket is nothing less than laughable.

But it does get Hooper thinking. He admits Trinidad has been a happy hunting ground for West Indian fast bowlers but he would not play four quicks in this game.

"When you are playing four quicks, you are also lengthening your tail," said Hooper "At the end of the day, it's question of finding the right balance."