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The West Indies selectors last night came up with their most ingenious strategy in years, naming a team of 15 for the first Test against Australia.

The only drawback is that only 11 can actually take the field at the Queen's Park Oval on Friday morning.

In the present circumstances of injuries, absenteeism and downright defeatism that have followed the degrading drubbing of South Africa, only captain-on-probation Brian Lara and wicket-keeper Ridley Jacobs, the one success in South Africa, could be considered certainties prior to last night's announcement in a media conference at the Trinidad Hilton.

The options for the panel of chairman Mike Findlay, Joey Carew, Joel Garner and Lara were severely limited. They have stuck as much as they could to their all-embracing policy statement, issued two weeks ago and to the long established theory of when in doubt, go back to Phil Simmons.

True to established form, they have chosen yet another new opening batsman, the 12th specifically chosen for the position since the break-up of the great Gordon Greenidge-Desmond Haynes partnership in 1992.

He is Suruj Ragoonath, the dashing 30-year-old Trinidadian who joins, in chronological order, Simmons, Stuart Williams, Sherwin Campbell, Richie Richardson, Carl Hooper, Robert Samuels, Adrian Griffith, Clayton Lambert, Philo Wallace, Junior Murray and Daren Ganga as those specifically used in the position.

No spinners

He will join Sherwin Campbell, the solid little Barbadian who has earned his reinstatement following his omission from the tour of South Africa following a consistent Busta Cup tournament in which he has averaged in the high 60s.

Also true to form, they have included not a single spin bowler in the 15 as against six fast bowlers.

They had stated that emphasis would be placed on ``exposing young talented, committed and disciplined cricketers who appear to have the potential to serve the long-term interest of West Indies cricket''.

Those initially identified appear in the 15. They are the two Barbadian fast bowlers, Pedro Collins, the 22-year-old left-armer who has been consistent on two ``A'' team tours, and Corey Collymore, 22, who has impressed in his debut first-class season, and the Trinidad and Tobago batsman Lincoln Roberts, 24, who is finally fulfilling his obvious early promise.

All are yet to play Test cricket and are unlikely to do so just yet. The veteran champion fast bowlers, Ambrose and Walsh, have been declared fit and their support will come from Merv Dillon and Reon King, both of whom have had five-wicket returns in their last two matches.

There is no place for Nixon McLean, the fastest of the contenders, who bowled disappointingly in his four Tests in South Africa and was expensive for the President's XI against the Australians in the match that ended yesterday.

Collins and Collymore are along for the experience or in case one of the older hands tweaks a delicate muscle or develops acute fatigue syndrome on the morning of the match.

Selection policy

The other category covered in the earlier selection policy statement was those ``who demonstrate the capacity to cope immediately with the demands of the highest standards of international cricket at both the Test and One-Day levels''.

There are precious few who qualify at present and two, Carl Hooper and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, were eliminated from selection.

Hooper is by the side of his seriously ill baby son on the other side of the planet, in Adelaide, Australia, and the date of his return is uncertain. Chanderpaul, who is tending to the torn ligaments in his right shoulder that added injury to insult in South African, is expected to be fit to be back for the second Test in Kingston, starting March 13.

There was no alternative but to recall replacements with some experience of the pressure-cooker atmosphere of Test cricket, even if it is difficult to find those who fit the part of the criterion dealing with ``the capacity to cope immediately with the demands of the highest standards of international cricket''.

They have logically gone for Roland Holder who enjoys a productive relationship with the Queen's Park Oval where he has scored four of his 15 first-class hundreds as well as his highest score in ten Tests, 91 against India two years ago.

Less logically, if no less predictably, they have given Simmons the 19th recall of his chequered career.

Unimpressive record

Simmons' records at Test and first-class level, past and present, are unimpressive (an average of 22.26 in 26 Tests), his last three Tests scores were 0, 1 and 1 and he has not had an outstanding Busta Cup, averaging 29.57 batting in the middle-order.

He clearly owes the abiding faith the selectors have perennially had in him on his uplifting influence in the dressing room.

Dave Joseph, 29, the belligerent Leeward Islands batsman from Antigua, makes his Test debut in his tenth season of regional cricket and is unlikely to be overawed by the situation.

He topscored with 64 in the President's X1 first innings on Saturday against the same bowling he will meet in the Test but the atmosphere at the Queen's Park Oval on Friday will be altogether more tense.