Date-stamped : 17 Mar95 - 10:32 West Indies v Australia, ODI 4 Arnos Vale Ground, Kingstown, St.Vincent, 15 March 1995 The key to Australia`s new-ball attack, Craig McDermott, may be heading for a physical breakdown. The West Indies` 3-1 series win in the limited-over internationals was overshadowed yesterday be- cause of the potential seriousness of McDermott`s injury. Swing bowler Damien Fleming`s tour is already finished and Test partner McDermott is treading the high wire between semi-fitness and irreperable damage to his right bowling shoulder with the four-Test series starting in just over a fortnight. As with Fleming, McDermott missed the tour of New Zealand to overcome injury. Yesterday, the Queenslander limped off the Arnos Vale Ground in St Vincent after Australia`s seven-wicket loss with his shoulder paining him as it did in forcing his withdrawal from the third international in Trinidad. Both teams are breaking open at the seams from work overload. The West Indies` season began in Ocotber with tours of Inida and New Zealand. Australia went to Sri Lanka in September, a month earlier, continuing on to Pakistan and later to New Zealand after the Ashes series. Already without captain Richie Richardson (torn shoulder liga- ments), the West Indies yesterday lost champion paceman Curtly Ambrose (groin strain), world record-holder batsman Brian Lara (strained buttock muscle) and all-rounder Winston Benjamin (groin strain) as well as having batsman Jimmy Adams hobbling with a thigh strain - and still won the rain-reduced 46-over-a-side match with 2.5 overs to spare, 3-208 from 43.1 overs to Australia`s 9-210 from 48 overs. McDermott completed his stunted third spell like a medium-pace change bowler yesterday, sore of shoulder and tender of left an- kle from wrenching it in a pothole. From spells of four overs, three overs and two overs, his return was 0-46, battling on to the end. Whenever McDermott flung the ball in from the boundary, he winced. Well before the final stampede of Vincentians, he was protecting his arm, causing concern that he would damage the ro- tator cuff in the manner of Fleming, initially damaging a tendon with a throw before tearing it in bowling. Australian physiotherapist Errol Alcott said that while McDermott still had mobility in the shoulder, his preparation would require ``careful and judicious planning over the next 10 days or so`` before the Test. On top of this, Australian captain mark Taylor was reluctant to summon either of the Waugh brothers, with Mark recovering from a groin strain and Steve still regaining strength in his right shoulder from the dislocation in Pakistan. Taylor said of McDermott: ``I saw him pull up a few times today, which is a bit of a worry. But he was still going at the end even though he was not bowling flat-out. At this stage, it`s just a niggle, but we`ll have to find out tomorrow whether it`s some- thing more serious.`` Taylor wants more zest from his team in the final one-day inter- national in Guyana on Saturday and the two first-class games - in Guyana and St Lucia - before the first test on March 31, but he also spoke of ``a general staleness, maybe too much one-day cricket.`` ``We have to get life back into the team,`` Taylor said. ``As I said at the start of the tour, we have the talent to win, but you need more than talent here. You need energy and you need to raise the level of that energy at certain times. That`s what we must do over the next six weeks. ``Today, we had good opportunities. It was the sort of wicket where we needed a batsman to make a big score, someone to make 100 to 120. We`ve won our last three one-day series and we`re disappointed that we can`t win the one-dayers, but I`ve said from the start we`re here to win the Tests.`` Taylor said he believed Shane Warne, who bowled cleverly and ac- curately yesterday in his finest effort of the series with 2-33 from 9.1 overs, still had some Test stratagems up his sleeve and he praised the leg-spinner`s improvement of length and elimina- tion of short-pitched deliveries. But even with Lara in the dressing room, the West Indies had the explosive batsmanship to bring down Australia, first through pun- ishing opener Phil Simmons (86 from 110 balls) and later with the player of the series, middle-order batsman Carl Hooper, who con- tributed his fourth successive innings of distinction, an un- beaten 60 from 65 balls. Simmons smashed 12 boundaries and a six over cover point from Greg Blewett (0-26), who is learning the hard way, sharing a 94- run partnership in 15 overs with Hooper while the Guyanese all- rounder struck a six and five boundaries. After Taylor (3) drove an early catch behind point, it required the most wary 51-run partnership in 56 minutes on a pitch of ear- ly spiteful nature by Michael Slater (68 from 108 balls) and Mark Waugh (26 from 37 balls) to keep Courtney Walsh (3-30) and Curtly Ambrose (0-22) at bay. Slater cut and drove anything loose with a vengeance as well as having a measure of luck when dropped by wicketkeeper Junior Mur- ray at 37. On such a pitch, any good fortune was treble value. Waugh was caught down the leg side from what would have been ruled a wide ball and David Boon (33 from 45 balls) chopped Keith Arthurton (2-45) into his wicket to give the little left-arm ``dart thrower`` the first of two good wickets. Benjamin (1-32), who sustained a neck injury in Barbados, was the first to leave the field, followed by Ambrose and Lara. Both Ben- jamin and Ambrose will probably miss the Guyana leg, but Lara is anxious to play. Captain Courtney Walsh spoke of the back-to-back games in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, as the ``killer`` weekend. Thanks :: Phil Wilkins, Sydney Morning Herald. Contributed by David.Mar (mar@physics.usyd.edu.au)