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It took the mounted police to control the passionate new optimism surrounding West Indies cricket yesterday and another confused saga over the fitness of a key player to compromise it.

The crush of eager fans at Queen's Park for the team's final practice before today's critical Test against Australia at Kensington Oval was such that police on horseback had to be summoned to shepherd them a rational distance from the nets.

Not three weeks ago, when the West Indies were at their lowest ebb following their humiliating, record-low 51 and sixth successive Test defeat in Port-of-Spain, the players would have been apprehensive of an encircling crowd for altogether more fearful reasons.

Captain Brian Lara's magical 213 and his day-long partnership of 322 with Jimmy Adams at Sabina Park in the second Test , that led to an incredible, series-levelling victory, had the effect of turning prolonged depression into instant euphoria.

The expected return of Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Carl Hooper to a middle order reduced to dangerous inexperience in their absence further lifted optimism as did the sudden and dramatic shift in public support.

The enthusiasm was tempered yesterday morning by the news that Chanderpaul was still not fit enough to play.

Chairman of selectors, Mike Findlay, said yesterday Chanderpaul had been examined by Dr. Winston Seale, an orthopaedic specialist, who reported his right shoulder, injured on the tour of South Africa in late January, was still sore and incapable of taking the strain demanded of it in a five-day Test.

On the evidence of his batting in club cricket in Guyana, he had also been originally passed for the second Test but had to be pulled out four days before it.

His withdrawal means that left-hander Adrian Griffith will open the batting for his second Test on his home of Kensington and that Dave Joseph will keep his place although where he will bat is as much a mystery as it was in Kingston when he came No.5 having scored an impressive 50 on debut in Trinidad at No.3.

Hooper is back from Australia after the blessed recovery of his seriously ill infant son in Adelaide and, on the evidence of his nine wickets and his 102 for the 'A' team against the Australians in Antigua in the match that followed the third Test, is ready.

His class batting, off-spin bowling on a ground where he took five wickets in England's first innings last year, his slip fielding and the experience of 78 Tests represent a comforting sense of security for Lara.

The circumstances of Chanderpaul's lengthy layoff are a different matter and require a lot of explaining from the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB).

While the WICB has regularly despatched its injured players to New York for treatment from specialist Dr. Answorth Allen, the 24-year-old left-hander, the most consistent batsman in the team with an average of 42 from 35 Tests, remained in Guyana in the care of Monica Benn, chief physiotherapist at Prasads Hospital in Georgetown and a specialist in sports medicine.

According to her, Chanderpaul slightly dislocated his shoulder in South Africa, an injury that was not diagnosed until he returned home. By then he had also strained ligaments.

The story is made more complex by the fact that Chanderpaul has had a couple of matches for his club team in Georgetown, scoring 93 not out and a hundred.

Not that it has had any effect on the intense interest that has built up in the series since the Miracle of Sabina.

Tickets that were gathering dust in the corner of the BCA's sales booth are now as scarce as opposition MPs, banners span main roads leading to Kensington and the voices on call-in programmes, angry and distressed for so long, are now upbeat.

Appreciative as they are for this dramatic change in the public mood, Lara and his men know that they are up against opponents who have proved themselves the most proficient team in Test cricket at present.

Their pride was seriously stung at Sabina and they will not easily surrender the Frank Worrell Trophy they secured in the Caribbean in 1995. They will not forget that it started with a 10 wicket triumph in three days at Kensington.

Teams:

West Indies (final eleven): Brian Lara (captain), Sherwin Campbell, Adrian Griffith, Carl Hooper, Dave Joseph, Jimmy Adams, Nehemiah Perry, Curtly Ambrose, Pedro Collins and Courtney Walsh.

Australia (likely): Steve Waugh (captain), Michael Slater, Matthew Elliott, Justin Langer, Mark Waugh, Greg Blewett or Ricky Ponting, Ian Healy, Shane Warne, Jason Gillespie, Stuart MacGill and Glenn McGrath.

Umpires: Eddie Nicholls (Guyana), Dave Orchard (South Africa)
TV replay umpire: Halley Moore
Match referee: Raman Subba Row