Pedro Collins

Despite his internationl debut in 1998, Pedro Collins has been in and out of the West Indies squad for a while, having played alongside pacemen such as Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh and  Ian Bishop. Since early 2004 he has been a regular in the Caribbean pace attack.

A left-arm bowler, Collins was a keen footballer before he rolled into cricket. He finds enough swing into the right-hander to cause the best batsmen difficulty.

His weakness as a fast bowler has been his lack of stamina, a must for a bowler to continue long spells.

In November 1998 he took three wickets in 11 balls for West Indies A against India, a spell which led to his Test debut against Australia the following March.

For a long time after that, he was best remembered for an injury of the cruellest kind, when a  Jason Gillespie delivery trapped a testicle outside his box. He got back in 2001-02 with a vengeance having worked hard on his fitness, much faster than before. He took only nine wickets in West Indies' series victory over India, but managed the priceless wicket of Sachin Tendulkar on three occasions. While the flat pitches of India didn't help him much, he was far more successful against Bangladesh in 2002-03.

Following this was a another period of lull as he didn't play for nearly a year. But he returned to face England in March 2004, and within six balls, removed Michael Vaughan, before taking three more wickets, to herald a successful return to the side.