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Sherwin Campbell will be able to look his West Indies cricket manager Clive Lloyd squarely in the eye at their next breakfast.

The 29-year-old Campbell saved West Indies from collapse before lunch on the first day of their four-day match against Auckland.

He went on to a splendid 112 - steadying the shaking ship with a 151-run fifth-wicket stand with Jimmy Adams - in the team total of 330 for seven from the 93 overs bowled yesterday.

The latest edition of the New Zealand Herald contains a profile of Lloyd in which the West Indies manager gave the strong message that he and team coach Sir Viv Richards see their first priority on this tour as leading the players back to the great traditions of West Indies cricket.

This follows the message from the two before the tour opener against New Zealand A: all the batsmen should bat as long and as profitably as they could, to make the most benefit from the two first-class matches before the first Test at Hamilton next week.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul, with his double-century, Adams and Ricardo Powell answered the call at Taupo, and now Campbell, Adams, Ridley Jacobs (with a lively 52 not out) and, briefly, Powell, again have heeded the words of Richards and Lloyd.

None more bravely than Campbell, for his 294-minute, 208-ball innings was a superb piece of batsmanship and determination in the middle.

Brian Lara probably misread the early playing conditions when he decided West Indies would bat after he had won the toss. The pitch looked benign, but there was some early moisture in it and this led to mid-morning mischief.

Darran Ganga was caught off an outswinger with the total at three. Chanderpaul undone by a wicked out-swinger at four. Lara himself was taken at the wicket at 34 after a brief adventure, and Powell lived like a gambler until he ran out of luck at 61.

The Aucklanders, under-strength with four top players unable to play, were overjoyed at their early success and had another wicket fallen before lunch they might have cut even deeper into the wobbling West Indies innings.

But Campbell seemed totally at ease, even while his colleagues were falling at the other end. Adams, too, a veteran of any number of batting crises, settled in without fuss.

Gradually the number of risky or edged strokes diminished, the eager Aucklanders asked eagerly but without success for several lbw decisions in their favour. However, immediately after their partnership was past 150 Adams played an over-ambitious hook at Kerry Walmsley, the best of the Auckland medium-fast bowlers, and was caught at square-leg.

Campbell's inevitable century (212 balls, 12 fours and a six) was the signal for the Barbadian to relax, and he thrashed three more fours before he top-edged a catch to the 'keeper.

© The Barbados Nation