The fixture list has given us a few days off this week, perhaps a shame considering the blistering win against Lancashire last week.

Sometimes you do not need days off to break the momentum when you are playing well. In the wider context of a long season, however, the few days break has been welcome.

It has allowed us to reflect on last week's superlative cricket as well as look forward to a game that must surely whet the appetite of all Sussex cricket supporters. I refer to Saturday's floodlit fixture against the West Indies.

I was 12th man when Sussex last played against the West Indians in 1995. Many of you will remember it as one of Sussex's finest hours in recent history.

They won by an innings and 121 runs, an unprecedented defeat for a touring squad that contained such talents as Brian Lara, Richie Richardson, Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose.

Whilst Richardson was the only one of those to play in that game, Lara and Shivnarine Chanderpaul are the only members of that touring party who will be playing in England this time.

Perhaps, if he plays on Saturday (which he is surely likely to do), the memory of some fine batting by Neil Lenham and Keith Newell and excellent bowling by Jason Lewry, Franklyn Stephenson, Paul Jarvis and Ian Salisbury, will serve to focus Lara's mind.

It will be a treat to watch and play against the world record holder and all of the Sussex bowlers lucky enough to bowl at him will be eager to add him as a scalp so they can bore their grandchildren about it in years to come.

The West Indies batting line-up is not all about Lara, however, particularly in the one-day game.

Anyone who has watched Chris Gayle bat will know that he has a game particularly suited to opening the batting in limited overs cricket.

He uses his long levers to hit the ball incredibly hard, often in the air, and his boundary count is suitably high for someone who takes advantage of the fielding restrictions in the first 15 overs. He will be fun to watch, if not so fun to bowl at.

In Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan, the middle order has two high class players who are both capable of manoeuvring the ball into gaps as well as dashing stroke play if the situation requires it.

Chanderpaul, in particular, is much underrated as a player who can actually hit the ball extremely hard. He is often thought of as a wristy 'nudger and nurdler' and yet he scored the third fastest hundred in Test history (off just 69 balls) against Australia in 2003.

Watch out, too, for Dwayne Smith. He is a young batsman who has clearly learnt his craft at the Viv Richards 'no fear' school of batting. He has burst onto the international scene in a whirlwind of shots and he is also a very fine fielder.

Lara may no longer be able to throw the ball to legends such as Ambrose and Walsh, but it will still be exciting to watch the emerging talent of Jermaine Lawson and Tino Best, who both bowl at 90mph, among others.

Those of you who watched the West Indies play in the recent Caribbean series against England will know that they are never a dull team to watch - scintillating one minute, appalling the next.

Likewise, those who have supported Sussex in one-day cricket over the past few years will have had the strength of their hearts tested at some of the cricket we have played. Saturday's game should be a good 'un.