EVEN I COULD DO DAMAGE ON THIS PITCH

ENGLAND'S bruised batsmen are in for another battering in Trinidad this week.

After a dangerous pitch forced the abandonment of the first Test at Jamaica's Sabina Park, England might have hoped for a better strip for the hastily re-arranged Test in Trinidad this week.

But Port of Spain's Queens Park Oval is going to be another horror pitch.

One look at the strips that are mapped out to provide back-to- back Test matches is all you need to know: NEITHER will go the distance.

I was chased off the middle by angry groundsman Lewis Roberts when I went to inspect the wicket.

Roberts wanted to know why I needed to see the wicket. I told him that England were concerned with the state of the strip - and he wasn't even able to tell me which piece of grass he was going to cut for Thursday's Test.

I'm not surprised. There is no real definition in the middle. There is far too much grass and the centre has clearly been heavily watered.

When I stuck my keys into the heart of the track, they came up with a lump of turf the size of a golf ball. That can be rolled out in the next few days, but I've seen Trinidad wickets before. Don't hold your breath.

Three years ago, the Australians were stitched up when the Windies came here 1-0 down with two to play.

Curtly Ambrose, who rarely bowls well on a decent track, charged in as if his life depended on it.

The Australians, for all their courage, were beaten by the first session of the third day. Justice was done when they stuffed the Windies in the final Test on a Sabina Park pitch that had no resemblance to the one which saw just 62 balls before entering the history books.

Trinidad is unlikely to be much better.

Groundsman Roberts looked like a worried man to me and I don't blame him.

I managed a few words with Robert Henderson from the Trinidad Board of Control. He was less than willing to discuss the wicket but insisted it would be better than Jamaica.

I wish I could be filled with the same confidence. In my view, England are in for another rough ride.

The West Indies Board, however, are still refusing to attribute any blame for what went on for an excuse of a Test Match in Jamaica.

Barbados cricket boss Tony Marshall sat next to me on the flight to Port of Spain and told me that all will be well when we get to Bridgetown.

By then Athers and Co will have been bounced to bits.

I bowled a ball on the Queens Park wicket and - despite my devastating lack of pace - the delivery climbed alarmingly off something just short of a good length.

Groundsman Roberts wasn't happy with that.

He immediately ordered me off the middle where England's batsmen will have to face another pounding.

Meanwhile, back in Jamaica, the arguments continued but at least one member of the Kingston Cricket Club, who own Sabina Park, believed that the West Indies cricket bosses were solely to blame for this week's shambles of a First Test.

Donovan McIntosh, a lifelong club member, told me: "The groundsman should not carry the can. He was given precise instructions - and they were wrong.

"Only a few weeks ago, Jamaica played Barbados on the very same strip. And the groundsman told the Jamaican Board that he wasn't happy to use that track for the President's Cup game, but they ignored him.

"It's no wonder that it did some nasty things when England went out to bat. There is no way the groundsman is wrong. He was badly advised."

Trinidad, though, don't look to have got it any better. England can expect more of the same as Walsh and Ambrose look to revitalise their flagging careers.

As one England insider told me: "I'm not surprised Courtney and Curtly have delayed their retirement. On wickets like these, your grandmother could do plenty of damage."

England's meticulous preparation for this hardest of all overseas tours is being sadly undermined by a West Indies set-up that is desperately trying to cling on to its fearsome reputation.

England will do well to come through the next three months unscathed. I seriously doubt that they will.

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