Can Windies stop wobbling?

Previous West Indies teams have spent much of their time in South Africa looking for ways to scramble out of deepening holes, and ominous echoes are ringing in their ears with the first Castle Lager Test at hand in Port Elizabeth on Wednesday.

This time an embarrassing one-day defeat in Zimbabwe, the uncertain state of Chris Gayle's fitness and a thrashing at the hands of South Africa A on Friday have set the Windies wobbling. That said, they should be immune to the effects of the ongoing melodrama by now.

It's almost 10 years since the side led by Brian Lara interrupted their journey in London to squabble over money. Before the men from the Caribbean arrived in South Africa, Lara and his vice-captain, Carl Hooper, had been fired and re-hired and Jimmy Adams's tour was over before it began after an in-flight butterknife made him an offer he couldn't refuse.

Five years later, the Windies at least made it to our shores in one piece. But by the time a ball was bowled in the first Test they had bade farewell to the injured Jerome Taylor, Omari Banks and Marlon Samuels.

Inevitably, the soap opera in the wings took its toll on the field. South Africa surged to a 5-0 whitewash in 1998-99, and in 2003-04 the margin was 3-0 with the other Test drawn.

Forgive our knees for jerking to the conclusion that we might be staring a similarly lopsided series in the face this summer.

"There aren't many thoughts of Christmas in the camp right now," West Indies media man Philip Spooner said on Sunday as the team practised at a windswept St George's Park. "The players are concentrating on what they need to do to be in the best possible shape to take on South Africa."

Gayle might have been concentrating more intensely than his teammates. The West Indian captain was stretchered off the field after injuring a hamstring in the second one-day international against Zimbabwe in Harare three weeks ago.

The original prognosis on Gayle was that he would be out of action for those three weeks, but that deadline has come and gone without fanfare. Which leaves unanswered the question of whether the brawny left-hander will be fit to assume what would be his first Test captaincy.

"That decision will be made on the eve of the match," Spooner said with an utterly dead bat. "He's been receiving treatment, and he's batting in the nets and doing everything he can to be ready for the game."

John Dyson, the West Indies' new coach, who took up his appointment during the tour to Zimbabwe, gave a similarly fuzzy answer to the same question last week.

While Gayle is an untried Test captain, he is a proven performer and a feared opponent at the top of the order. The West Indians' batting prospects are encompassed by Gayle's effortless aggression and Shivnarine Chanderpaul's world-class stoicism.

Remove Gayle from the equation and they are left with a man who will always go down fighting and not a lot else.

Even with Gayle in harness, the visitors are likely to have to depend on their bowlers to keep a grip on the series.

Last Sunday in Port Elizabeth, those bowlers proved they would be a threat when four South African wickets crashed for five runs in the space of six deliveries.

The fact that the contest was a Standard Bank Pro20 match that had been abbreviated by rain, and that the pitch had been jazzily juiced up by the rain matter less than some may have us think.

If similar conditions present themselves, the West Indian bowlers should be just as threatening. In fact, more so what with the greater emphasis on setting attacking fields in Test matches.

As South Africa have proved in recent seasons, one bad session can decide a series. And with reports predicting a lively pitch in Port Elizabeth extra vigilance will be required.

Of course, the same applies to the West Indian batsmen, who would not be human if they hadn't spent a good deal of the past few weeks asking themselves whether Dale Steyn really is as lethal as his performances make him look.

They can stop wondering: he is. And they could also end up facing Monde Zondeki and Morne Morkel.