Chanderpaul usually drops anchor while Hooper makes hay

Yet a Test average of 37 - with 12 centuries - is hardly the kind of return expected from a player blessed with such talent.

But Hooper now looks as though he has settled into the job of leading his team.

He has scored three hundreds against India, including his maiden Test double century, to saved his side from the ignominy of being defeated at home by one of the more incompetent travellers in the world game.

The fact he has passed 400 runs and scored more than two hundreds in a series for the first time speaks volumes of the faults that have riddled Hooper's game.

His 233 in the first Test was, significantly, the Guyanese' first century on his home ground, and it was all the more special for Hooper after the long wait.

"I've waited 15 years for this moment and it's finally come," Hooper said.

"I've been desperate to make a hundred before my home crowd for so long that when the moment finally arrives you can allow to let yourself go."

Critics silenced

Hooper has certainly let himself go since with scores of 50, 22, 115 and 136.

Along with Chanderpaul, who has typically taken the anchor role, Hooper has carried his side's batting with 62 the highest score from another West Indies batsman.