Best and Edwards revive fearsome tradition of Barbadian fast bowling

No territory in the West Indies has produced as many quality fast bowlers as Barbados but, understandably, the assembly line has had its stops and starts. The unmistakable signs in the past year that it is beginning to chug back into action were confirmed yesterday as Fidel Edwards and Tino Best lifted West Indian gloom with the controlled pace and hostility Barbadians have come to expect from their fast bowlers.

No territory in the West Indies has produced as many quality fast bowlers as Barbados but, understandably, the assembly line has had its stops and starts. The unmistakable signs in the past year that it is beginning to chug back into action were confirmed yesterday as Fidel Edwards and Tino Best lifted West Indian gloom with the controlled pace and hostility Barbadians have come to expect from their fast bowlers.

Edwards had struck the early blows in the first Test before the muscles in his side gave way under the strain of his peculiar round-arm action, before the wholehearted Best filled the breach in his absence in both first and second Tests. Together again, their faltering batsmen had once more left them with an inadequate total to work with.

Edwards had the wicket of the leaden-footed Marcus Trescothick in the bag when play resumed but more quick breaks were needed if the West Indies were to remain in contention.

The situation stimulated Best and Edwards into the finest spell of West Indian fast bowling since the retirements of Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh three years earlier.

They were fast, disciplined and direct and, if Best was unlucky with a straightforward missed slip chance off Michael Vaughan in his second over, he had a hand in Edwards' dismissals of Mark Butcher and Vaughan in the pressure he helped create.

Two other Barbadians, Pedro Collins, Edwards' brother, and Corey Collymore, their neighbour from the northern village of Boscoble, less pacy but more experienced, ensured England could not break from the leash.

Barbados fast bowlers have led West Indian attacks with distinction through the ages. "Float" Woods and Charlie Cumberbatch were the spearheads on their first tour of England in 1900. They were followed by George Francis, Herman Griffith and Manny Martindale between the wars, and Wes Hall, Charlie Griffith, Malcolm Marshall, Joel Garner and Wayne Daniel in more recent times.

It's been a decade since Marshall, the finest of them all, delivered his last ball in Test cricket. The wait has been long but the evidence is mounting that the legacy of Barbadian fast bowling is about to be revived.