The first thing that has to be said about the Queen's Park Oval in Port of Spain is that it is a "result" wicket. In fact, nine of the last ten Test matches played here have seen a positive result for one side or the other.

The second thing that needs to be said about the Queen's Park Oval in Port of Spain is that it is not a particularly happy hunting ground for the West Indies. It is certainly no Bridgetown, Barbados.

The Windies have lost to England, Australia, South Africa and India since 1998, with their only victory coming against the not-so-leading-lights of Zimbabwe.

But the home side can at least take some solice from the fact that all of those defeats, bar a 312 run thrashing at the hands of the Aussies, were close-run things.

The game against Australia in March 1999 featured just four visiting players who will be turning out four years on, namely Justin Langer, Steve Waugh, Dizzy Gillespie and, most likely, Stuart MacGill.

None of those had particularly inspiring games, though Gillespie did take 4/18 in the Windies second innings as they were skittled for an embarrassingly low 51.

The captain for the Windies that time out? One Brian Charles Lara.

This will be Australia's 12th outing on the ground and they will be hoping for just their fourth victory.

Of the 51 Test matches played at Queen's Park, the first being against England in 1929, there have been 31 results. 17 of these have gone in favour of the home side, with visiting teams picking up 14 wins. This is unusually high for a top-class international team to have lost so many Tests at home.

The last five results seem to suggest that the wicket will be a fast-bowlers paradise, with the match-winning performances coming from Glenn McGrath, Courtney Walsh, Allan Donald and Javagal Srinath.

The statistics seem to suggest, as with so many grounds around the world, that this is not a great wicket to bat last on. The last four Tests here have been won by the team batting first.

In fact, the West Indies have never lost defending a total in Port of Spain, but have won just once chasing one. A sure sign that BC Lara needs to win the toss and bat!