Jaques seeing the ball well, thanks to surgery

PHIL Jaques has credited recent laser eye surgery with improving his batting and fielding.

Before the Caribbean tour, Jaques had worn contact lenses at the crease to rectify long-sightedness and astigmatism. But since having surgery in Sydney, the Australian opener has dispensed with the lenses and believes he is seeing the ball with a clarity he had not previously known.

"I decided to bite the bullet and go for the laser eye," Jaques said following his innings of 108 in the third Test at Kensington Oval.

"It was really good. I found that high balls were heaps better. Batting, I've got a lot more time and I don't have to worry about the contacts. It's a big relief. It's pretty much changed my life, I think."

Jaques was certainly seeing the ball well on Saturday, completing his second Test century and first outside Australia. Content to remove the hook and pull shots from his repertoire, the left-hander instead concentrated on driving and cutting against a frustrated West Indian attack, which had little answer to his patient style of play.

"It was definitely a different approach to us with regards to the short-pitched bowling," Jaques said of his partnership with Simon Katich.

"We sort of thought that that was probably the biggest way that we were going to get out on this wicket, particularly when the ball started to get a little bit older and a bit more variable.

"We decided just to get in behind it, or sway out of the way, or get up the other end rather than play the big hook shots that we played earlier on in the game. It seemed to pay off later in the game."