There is electricity in the Trinidad air right now. For a week or more, the streets have been throbbing late into the night with the sounds of the multi-piece steel bands cranking up their acts for the carnival which climaxes in little more than a fortnight on the Savannah.
Carnival supersedes all else, even cricket, but it is against this background that West Indies and England today begin a potential 10 days of Test cricket out of the next 13 at the Queen's Park Oval. Following the abandonment of the Jamaica Test a week ago, today's game effectively is the first of the series, and ought to carry with it all the tension that such matches engender. But hastily organised as it has been and with competition now from the carnival, it appears to be strangely anti-climactic.
The preparation of the pitch has been a rush job, work on the big new stand in readiness for the game still scheduled for the 13th must be put on hold, as has the new electronic scoreboard and replay screen.
Although advance ticket sales for what is now the third Test have reached 70 per cent, nothing like that can be expected for this game, with the local media even advocating that the business community purchase 10,000 tickets and distribute them to schools.
Mike Atherton insists that the experience at Sabina Park, and the lack of meaningful cricket in the interim has not deflected his side.
"The Sabina experience was a one-off," he said yesterday, "and it was hard for a few days in Kingston, but I don't think we have lost momentum. The team have reacted well and positively."
The two-day game against Trinidad over the weekend, was, he felt "useful" rather than ideal, but the team made the most of it with handy runs scored and good wickets taken.
For this game, England seem certain to revert to the strategy proposed before the illness to Jack Russell on the first morning in Jamaica, although the nature of this pitch - grassy still, despite the promise of the groundsman Curtis Roberts to shave it some more - allows them the option of considering four seamers.
West Indies, of course, never do anything else and they are certain to put England in to bat if they win the toss. The only point of interest from them will be whether Brian Lara - captain in his own country, and promising "something special" with the bat as a result - holds faith with his fellow Trinidadian Ian Bishop (who bowled poorly at Guaracara Park on Sunday). Or will he bring in Kenny Benjamin, who took wickets here against Trinidad a fortnight ago, and whose skiddy style is ideally suited to the low seaming pitch that this promises to be.
The attack will be led once more by Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose. Atherton, whose first-ball dismissal by Ambrose in the second innings here four years ago sparked one of Ambrose's finest spells and a plummet to 46 all out has not forgotten the lesson.
"My overriding memory is of a game that we dominated for a long period and if we had had more experience probably would have won. Instead, we got into a winning position - a lead for them of only 60 odd with six second innings wickets down - only to drop vital catches and let them in turn get into a winning position. We were very green then, but that is no longer true."
This first match will have a direct bearing on next week's game. The pitches for the two games are adjacent, and there could well be a problem of scarring on the second as bowlers follow-through from the first pitch.
