Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Oct 23, 2011 Sports
Even Before we get to Tests, what exactly occurred with West Indies in ODI # 3, v Bangladesh? Could it be, as openly opined by Darren Sammy, West Indies captain, that his team took ODI # 3 lightly; lazily? Sammy confirmed; “We took our foot off the gas and did not stand up to be counted this time!” What??
It does seem that our few concerned voices have become like echoes in a huge vacuum. Few care about our cricket; really; especially some in power positions, who only suggest that they do, but try to dictate and manipulate responses, demand subservience, apologies, even retractions, and are quite vindictive!
West Indies cricket seems so hell bent on being rhetorically positive, that it is forgetting the absolute practical; to always play to the best of abilities. With no guarantee of success, it must still be required that any team plays at its best at all times. Did the first day of Test No. 1 give you that impression?
It might be acceptable to some, but any team that represents me has one right; to always give 100%, period. No-one is asinine enough to always expect wins, but proper representation must be demanded!
Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards, Deryck Murray, captains in my Tests and ODI’s, never thought, much less said, “we could relax and take things cool!” Madness! Do these players know why they are in Bangladesh?
Or are they only representing themselves, and could not give a damn about what the concerned few of seven million who still care, think? Have they been taught what proper representation is? What absolute drivel is this from our senior captain anyway?
Can you imagine South Africa’s Graham Smith, India’s MS Dhoni, Australia’s Michael Clarke, or England’s Alastair Cooke explaining; “We lost because we eased up a bit?” Nah, I cannot either!!
Or is it that West Indies players know that while our cricket honchos make much noise, they can get away with it, as they are, as one friend said, “The chosen and gilded few!” Has it been explained to this team and its parts that they are our main ambassadors?
How did West Indies powers-that-be not pull Sammy up on that? As succinctly explained by an independent observer; “Sammy batting No. 6? West Indies’ tail is so long, it is almost prehensile!” Hmmm, I wonder!
Bangladesh knew that they had a better chance to win ODI # 3, with Adrian Barath and Lendl Simmons out injured, and Ravi Rampaul and Devendra Bishoo rested, with Test No. 1 being the next game, but the Tigers could not believe their fortune, to be handed that game on a platter!
Some have suggested, stupidly, that West Indies had already won the ODI series, so losing ODI # 3 did not matter. West Indies is decidedly much distant away from being a good enough team to pick and chose to win or lose! What crap is going on here?
Dismissing West Indies for 61; 22 overs; must have been beyond Bangladesh’s wildest dreams, even if Bangladesh beat West Indies 3-0, in the Caribbean; 2009. Skeptics suggested back then that our team was a 2nd XI, maybe even 3rd. Well, this is West Indies 1st XI; in 2011!
West Indies embarrassed Bangladesh; 58; ICC 50-over World Cup 2011, when Bangladesh needed to win. This immediate reversal is revenge, and a great boost for the home team. What shambles!
Richie Richardson, team manager, and Dessie Haynes “batting consultant”; whatever that means; are two of the best right-handed players of spin that we ever had. How, then, is it that present West Indies batsmen, period, appear so damned out of their depth to spin?
Everton Weekes, Clyde Walcott, Frank Worrell, Lawrence Rowe, Viv Richards, Seymour Nurse, Carl Hooper, Rohan Kanhai, Basil Butcher, Conrad Hunte, Gordon Greenidge, Ramnaresh Sarwan; right-handers; compare too. With Richardson and Haynes close, why do batsmen look so ill equipped to spin?
Observing most present West Indies batsmen play spin reminds me much of the Rhode Island chickens “Ole Sylvie” – my mother – kept at Unity-Lancaster in primary school days. To paraphrase Grenadian calypsonian “Super P” – ‘Everybody Peepin’ – but thinking of those fowls, everybody scratching!
Except for Marlon Samuels, with class that we always knew he had, and Lendl Simmons, more restrained and patient, no-one else in the ODI’s looked like they knew anything about batting at all, much less to be successful at it. Most present Windies batsmen look more confused than ever before!
54 v South Africa; Cape Town, 2004; is West Indies lowest 50-over score, this 61 the next lowest. Noticeably, that 61 was made with Bangladesh using two new white balls, each used for only 11 overs; Shakib al Hasan, that wily leg-spinning, former captain, weaving a marvelous 5-0-16-4!
Including those noted, there have been six times that West Indies had been dismissed under 100 in ODI’s. Three of those were completed by supposedly lesser teams; 80 v Sri Lanka – Mumbai 2006, 87 v Australia – Sydney 1992, 91 v Zimbabwe – Sydney 2001 and that infamous 93 v Kenya – Pune 1996.
That 3rd ODI performance at Chittagong’s Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium must have sent severe shivers into West Indies’ batsmen’s bellies. The pitch is excellent for spinners, Bangladesh loves playing there, and West Indies will, likely, bat last on it in Test No. 1. The next few days will be instructional!
West Indies will have to depend more on its faster bowlers in the Tests, than spinners, even though Devendra Bishoo will have much work to do. It would be extremely dangerous, and dumb, to think that West Indies spinners could out-spin Bangladesh.
Jack Noriega got West Indies best bowling figures ever; 9-95; v India, 1971. Yet, West Indies lost that game, by 7 wickets, due to India’s 4-pronged spin attack – Bishen Singh Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna, Srinivas Venkataraghavan and Salin Durani. No team could out-spin a spinning team!
Ravi Rampaul has been bowling well, and is probably the senior bowler in the squad, though he is the slowest of the three main faster bowlers, while Fidel Edwards continues his come-back after serious injury. Kemar Roach, though, bothers me much. His development seems to have been stagnated!
Bangladesh does not have real speedsters, since Mahmudullah, probably their quickest, is unfit. West Indies could look forward to a healthy diet of spin for Tests. That display last Tuesday certainly did not convince that West Indies will cope well at all in Tests. We shall see how they go!
More worrying to West Indies would be the failure of batsmen Darren Bravo, Denesh Ramdin and Kieron Pollard in the ODI’s. Had it not been for two sterling innings each, from Simmons and Samuels; ODI 1 & ODI 2; we would have been scratching our heads asking even more questions!
Like Roach, Darren Bravo’s overall performances need immediate and severe attention. For such a young man, he seems quite geriatric. Bravo’s fielding and batting efforts have been very poor so far this tour. Looking like Brian Lara has nothing to do with producing runs or taking catches!
‘Shooting the rapids’ that are the Tests, we hope for better representation! We deserve it! Enjoy!
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