WICKETS SHOULD FAVOUR WINDIES - CAMERON

West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) president, Dave Cameron, says work to improve the state of the region's pitches is ongoing, but insists that those pitches must also provide the West Indies with the opportunity to do well against quality rivals.

Regional pitches came in for some criticism during the recently concluded series against England that ended earlier this month, with commentators and players alike describing some of the surfaces as graveyards. Still, there were outright results in two of the three matches played between Antigua, Grenada and Barbados. The first Test in Antigua ended in a tame draw, but England won the second Test in Grenada by nine wickets, before the West Indies stormed back to level the series by beating the English by five-wickets inside three days in Barbados.

It is against that background that Cameron believes the pitches, while in need, are an improvement, having proven to be good enough for now.

"Kent (Crafton) continues to go around, and we are focused on making those pitches better, but the interesting thing is we say we have graveyard pitches, but we lost the game in Grenada for one bad session, otherwise, we could have had a very good outcome there, but all of the wickets, if we play bad cricket on them, we will lose," he said.

Australia arrives in the West Indies for a two-Test series beginning June 3, and Cameron said we have to be careful what we wish for when it comes to pitch preparation.

"We have to give ourselves opportunities to at least get a good result while we are in the rebuilding stage," he said. "I hear all the pundits say we should have faster tracks, but we have to be mindful who we are playing against, and for us to get back up the rankings, we have to use our own advantages."

opportunities to be competitive

With that in mind, Cameron said the pitches being prepared at Windsor Park and Sabina Park will give the West Indies the best opportunities to be competitive against the ever-improving Australians, who boast some of the world's best bowlers.

"The instructions are clear. Prepare fair wickets, and if we do well, credit should go out to our bowlers," the WICB president said. "They are swinging the ball around now, and Michael Clarke has commented that they are looking at our opening bowlers, and they are looking well; so for me, it's less about wickets. We want to give them fair wickets to bowl on, but we also want to ensure that we give the West Indies team a chance to do well against these better teams."