Once he’s done with the top surface, Coney likes to go a bit deeper. He makes sure he is always around when the television crew dig up the area behind the stumps, to immerse the stumps microphones. “It gives me an idea of the root structure,” he continues, “whether the roots go right down to the ground to hold the structure. It tells me how hard the surface below is and how much moisture is there.”

As if to give it a class-room atmosphere, Coney picks up his pen and quickly sketches the profile of an ideal pitch. “Normally there is grass on top and a depth of hard crust below, that’s of course if it’s rolled properly. Beneath it, you would like to have a cheesy layer and if you finger through it, it’s like a trampoline. That helps the bounce. You can’t have a pitch that is hard throughout its profile, you need moisture underneath because it will keep the roots nourished. The roots can suck the water up and last longer as a result. The problem with the pitches in the West Indies is that you normally have grass growing beside it, not on it.”

He then ventures into a long geological lecture about clay quality, followed by an explanation of the physics of water-soil interaction. Then there is a small matter of studying the weather forecasts, a trifle of analysing the past statistics on this ground, and the usual routine of speaking to seasoned observers. Coney can discuss pitches all day and all night. But does he always get it right? “If I got it right always I wouldn’t be coming back,” he says with a grin. “I have a good track record but the beauty is that even after all the analysis, you may still get it wrong.”