The Test series could easily have been 2-0 in favour of Sri Lanka had it not been for the impetuous stroke-play of our batsmen at Antigua and the rain at St. Vincent.
To score 223 runs on a dreadful pitch which no one gave them to total even 100, and then to be bowled out in 35 overs for 152 on a good batting track was unpardonable. It was true that Sri Lanka were one front-line batsman short with Hashan Tillekeratne out of action with a broken arm, but there was no excuse for such a rash display of batting which enabled West Indies to claw their way back after conceding a first innings lead of 34 runs and then, win by six wickets at Antigua.
At St. Vincent it was a different story. Sri Lanka without two of their main fast bowlers Chaminda Vaas and Nuwan Zoysa, performed splendidly to rout West Indies for 147 and gain a 75-run first innings lead. But chasing 269 to win, they were robbed of a possible win by rain, which caused so many interruptions during the afternoon session, that Sri Lanka from a winning position of 179 for 3 were virtually struggling to save the match at 233 for 8.
The series proved that Sri Lanka have the resources to become a good Test-playing side, provided they get their batsmen to pace out an innings for the matches to last five days, not go around hitting the ball as if it was in a one-day game.
Much of this type of batting has to be blamed on the domestic structure of our cricket. Although classified as first-class, since 1988-89, the so-called three-day games are the biggest drawback from Sri Lanka taking a long time in establishing themselves as a cricketing force in Tests.
The 15 clubs in Segment 'A' of the Sara trophy tournament does not offer our cricketers the kind of first-class base to build up long innings in Test cricket, because the opposition that some clubs offer are very much sub-standard that matches are finished well inside two days. Unless this structure is set right and proper first-class competition provided for our cricketers, Sri Lanka will always struggle at the highest level.
Australian-born coach Bruce Yardley thinks that more exposure to Tests will be beneficial in making Sri Lanka a force in the longer game. His thinking may be based on the success our cricketers had in the one-day game. Sri Lanka have played more than double the amount of one-day matches than they have played Tests in the last 15 years. That theory will hold good in some way, but the bottom line to the problem is the type of base that should be provided to the younger generation of cricketers who are to see Sri Lanka through to the next decade.
Man to man, Sri Lanka possessed a better batting line-up than West Indies whose batting looked vulnerable after Brian Lara and Carl Hooper. They were greatly handicapped by the absence of Shivnarine Chanderpaul who missed out on the entire tour with a neck injury.
The three key batsmen in the series were Lara, Aravinda de Silva and Sanath Jayasuriya. But apart from Jayasuriya who made two eighties, the other two failed to live up to their status as world class. Lara only shone in the final Test at St. Vincent scoring the solitary century of the series, while De Silva also showed his class at the same venue with an innings of 78.
Skipper Arjuna Ranatunga, Carl Hooper and Sherwin Campbell were all consistent, but overall it was a series dominated by the bowlers.
Off-spinner Muthiah Muralitharan once again demonstrated that he is arguably, one of the best off-spinner in the world today with a rich haul of 16 wickets in two tests which cost him 15.43 runs apiece. With this performance Muralitharan has proved that he is capable of bowling out any side in the world on any surface. His tally of wickets in the Caribbean improves by one the 15 wickets he took on the tour of Pakistan in 1995-96 but the results were totally different then - Sri Lanka winning the series 2-1.
Pakistan's Saqlain Mushtaq may be the only one who would come close to Muralitharan, but although he has become the youngest bowler to take a century of wickets in one-day cricket, he has yet to prove his capabilities in the longer game. Comparative figures show Saqlain having played in only nine tests and taking 38 wickets (avg. 36.47) with a strike rate of 80.13 balls per wicket, while Muralitharan's figures are : in 30 Tests he has taken 123 wickets (avg. 28.67) with a strike rate of 66.05 balls per wicket.
Apart from Muralitharan, the most pleasing factor from Sri Lanka's point was the resurgence of Ravindra Pushpakumara as a strike bowler. The right-arm fast-medium pacer was put through his paces by Yardley so that he shed off some of his rustiness to produce a remarkably good spell at St. Vincent to take five wickets in an innings. He somewhat compensated for the loss of Vaas and Zoysa to finish the series with a haul of 10 wickets taken at a healthy cost of 22.20. On the same lines, Pushpakumara's new ball partner Sajeeva de Silva was unlucky not to take more than three wickets in the series. He not only had catches dropped off him but also found the umpires unmoved when it came to giving leg before wicket decisions.
The ageing Curtley Ambrose carried the West Indies bowling once more on his broad shoulders taking 11 wickets at 14.81 - eight of them coming in the Antigua Test which proved decisive in West Indies winning the series. However, his fast bowling colleagues were far behind him - Rose, Walsh and Bishop taking 17 wickets amongst them, while part-time off-spinner Carl Hooper's six wickets comprised a bag of five in one innings at St. Vincent.