Hinds rose to the occasion for the new-look West Indies

He is vice-president of the West Indies Players Association, who were angered by the dropping of seven players in a sponsorship dispute.

"West Indies cricket is bigger than all of us. Without it, we are nothing.

"I came to Guyana with the intention of playing and representing West Indies to the best of my ability," said Hinds.

"West Indies cricket has been in the papers a lot negatively and the only way to put that straight is to come out on the playing field and show the people what we are worth."

They ended the opening day of the first Test on 347-3, despite the absence of Brian Lara, Chris Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan - three of the players whose personal sponsorship deals cost them their places.

All we need to do is to put out heads down, play some good cricket and I think the powers at be will work themselves out Wavell Hinds

Gayle and Sarwan have now ended their agreements with Cable & Wireless, a move which could see them reinstated in the side later in the series.

Hinds hit two sixes and 30 fours in his highest Test score and shared an unbroken stand of 241 with new captain Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who ended the day on 102 not out.

"We're a young team and nobody expected us to do what we did today," Chanderpaul commented.

"We lost a couple of early wickets, but Wavell stuck it out."

South Africa did not play any warm-up games prior to the Test and badly missed the control of injured Shaun Pollock.

There was consolation in the performance of paceman Andre Nel, who picked up all three wickets which fell during the day.

And he believes they are capable of fighting their way back into the game.

"Perhaps we didn't adapt to the conditions well enough - we need to bowl better as a unit.

"Tomorrow's a new day and if we take quick wickets, we can turn it around," he said.