Latest update March 28th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jun 20, 2009 Sports
Says Sean Devers
After showing much promise and fight as they advanced to the semi-finals of the ICC World 20/20 cricket tournament in England, West Indies fans were brought crashing down to reality as their team exhibited a brainless performance against Sri Lanka at the Oval yesterday.
At least Chris Gayle, the self proclaimed 20/20 specialist offered some hope but his unbeaten 63 from 50 balls was too little too late as wickets tumbled around him to the dismay of the thousands of West Indies supporters in London.
Handicapped by the unavailability of their strike bowler Fidel Edwards against the only team to beat them in the competition, West Indies’ decision to bring the struggling Xavier Marshall back and ask him to open, appeared a baffling one.
On a ground on which they beat Australia and defending champions India and on which they have lost just once in 9 ODIs, the West Indies catapulted to 3 wickets for one run in the first over bowled by Angelo Matthews and eventually crashed to 101 all out in 17.4 overs replying to Sri Lanka’s 158-5 in 20 overs.
While a few runs were given away, the fielding was generally good and the bowling not bad. In fact at the half way stage of their innings Sri Lanka were 69-1 before Tillakaratne Dilshan, the competition’s leading scorer, single-handedly took the game away from the West Indies with a magnificent unbeaten 96.
Once Marshall, who amazingly continues to be selected despite his consistent failures was bowled for a 1st ball duck and Lendl Simmons and Darren Bravo also fell without scoring, it was always going to be difficult for Gayle, still the only player with a 20/20 International century to his name, to do it alone.
Having to curb his natural instinct to savage the bowling as wickets fell around him, he was the only double figure scorer in a pathetic batting performance.
While Dilshan show that ‘touch players’ have a place in 20/20 cricket, West Indies’ most consistent batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul loves batting too much to enjoy this ‘slam bang’ format and Ramnaresh Sarwan just cannot slug if plenty of runs are needed from few balls.
Yesterday they collectively took 28 balls to eke out 12 runs as the required run rate escalated while the big hitting Kieron Pollard, who struggled for 10 balls for 3 runs, again showed he lacks the ability to ‘think’ when under pressure at the International level.
There is still plenty of talent in the West Indies but if drastic steps are not urgently taken to address the problem of poor work ethic and lack of commitment and patriotism by the young generation, our cricket will continue to flounder.
Add the problem of poor leadership by administrators who seem more interested in power and position than the development of the game and there is not much hope of West Indies returning to the glory days of the 1980s, especially since it was the mentally taxing format of Test cricket that we dominated.
Yesterday’s debacle again exposed the frightening lack of mental strength and ability to use common sense in tough situations. Many Caribbean youths seem not to have the desire to put in the hard work required to become real professionals in their chosen field but crave instant glorification and the status of stars without earning it. Money is a main motivator for our young players who get into teams too easily and while you must be able to live a comfortable life from your profession you also have the responsibility to produce to earn your pay.
Laid back style or not, it is disappointing for fans, especially those living in England to hear Skipper Gayle consistently say defeats like the one yesterday ‘was just one of those things’ and that an international team with several seasoned players are ‘still learning’.
Gayle nonchalant dismissal of the importance of winning is an insult to the millions of Caribbean people around the world and his publicized preference of 20/20 cricket over Test matches is not the type of behaviour one expects from the captain.
Growing up in a lawless society like the one we live in where the general standard in everything seems to be on the decline, it is maybe unfair to expect young Guyanese cricketers to think they have to be disciplined, work hard and be successful before you are rewarded.
Work must be done urgently at the primary school level if we are indeed serious of improving our cricket, especially the mental and physical aspects.
Too many of our young cricketers are also not paying enough attention to their education and this is affecting their thought process. The Guyana Cricket Board is not helping by organizing inter-county Under-19 tournaments in the middle of the exam period which requires plenty of absence from school.
A depleted Indian team now faces West Indies in 4 ODIs in the Caribbean from June 26 and the fans will expect nothing less than a series win in their own backyard and a review of the players’ performance for them to keep their place in the side.
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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