West Indies must dominate the rest of this series

Mar 06, 2010 Sports

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Darren Bravo is needed

By Sean Devers

After a dismal tour of Australia, the West Indies, number 8 in the bottom half of the ODI rankings, were hoping to use this ODI series against Zimbabwe, 2 places below them, as warm-up for the tougher South Africans who arrive just after the 20/20 World Cup.
But after embarrassing and confidence sapping back-to-back defeats in 20/20 game in Trinidad and the opening ODI here on Thursday the regional team should be desperate to salvage pride with a dominating series leveling win today in the 2nd ODI at Providence.
Thursday’s defeat, despite fifties from Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Chris Gayle and Adrian Barath, was the first ever ODI loss to Zimbabwe on home soil and Clyde Butts and his selectors must be told that Caribbean pride is at stake and that the best team should always be selected unless winning is not the main aim of this series.
Darren Bravo, who turned 21 last month and is arguable the most naturally talented young batsman in the region should not be ignored for the remaining three matches in St Vincent and should have been in the line-up for the Guyana matches.
Young Bravo averages higher in his 4 ODIs than Andrew Fletcher, Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Smith and to be relegated to just the ‘slog feast’ of 20/20 cricket at a time when the West Indies have not won an ODI since July last year suggest that the selectors and the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) are not thinking of results or those who pay hard earned money to attend the matches at a time when even the most vibrant marketing campaigns are not filling cricket grounds in the Caribbean.
If winning is the most important aspect of this series, then Ramnaresh Sarwan, who made a century in Grenada in the final round of the regional first-class competition last week and who practiced with the West Indies team in Guyana should have also been selected for today’s match.
The selectors claim that Sarwan is not fit enough to make this team but the performance of others in the side suggest that they are mentally unfit and a less than fully physically fit Sarwan would be hard-pressed to do worse.
If Chris Gayle and Shivnarine Chanderpaul fall cheaply today the rest of the fragile batting line-up could struggle against the spin based Zimbabwe attack on what should be another sluggish track.
Gayle, who was left out of the 20/20 clash in Trinidad, is one of the most feared ODI batsmen in the world and got good support from Adrian Barath in the first ODI. Chanderpaul is one of the most dependable batsmen in the world and showed his class with a well constructed 70, but without Sarwan and the Bravo brothers in the middle order, the batting is prone to collapses although Narsingh Deonarine is among the better players of spin in the region and will be expected to play a key role today.
It is time wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin puts his hands up and contributes with the bat as one of the senior players, especially when our 2 best pacers (injured Fidel Edwards and Jerome Taylor) are not in the team to help defend small totals.
Gayle has to take more responsibility for the team that takes the field by being a selector since he will get the blame when, as he described their last performance, they ‘play rubbish’.
Both teams should again base their attack on spin and it is not often that three spin bowlers are used to open the bowling in an ODI contest.
Kemar Roach and left-arm spinner Sulieman Benn, who continues to be the West Indies’ most economical bowler, should again share the new ball for the hosts while off-spinning Skipper Prosper Utseya and left-arm spinner Ray Price should share the new ball for the visitors with back up from leg-spinner Graeme Cremer and off-spinner Greg Lamb.
Medium pacer Elton Chigumbura and pacer Shingirai Masakadza, who kept his nerve Thursday to bowl his team to victory, should offer support.
Today, David Bernard could come in for Fletcher while Daren Sammy could replace Smith leaving the burden of the batting again on Gayle and Chanderpaul as the home team look to dominate the rest of the series and win 4-1.
Barath and Gayle will need another solid foundation for Chanderpaul at number three to build on and a lot will depend on sensible shot selection from Bernard, Deonarine, the pugnacious Pollard, Ramdin and Sammy if the West Indies are to avoid extending their winless streak to 15 matches.
Hamilton Masakadza, who scored a ton on his Test debut as a 17-year-old 9 years ago and the in-form Vusi Sibanda who fell 5 short of becoming only the 2nd Zimbabwe to score an ODI century against the West Indies, will hope to give their team another good start.
Lamb, hyper-active Keeper Tatenda Taibu, experienced all-rounder Elton Chigumbura and Brendon Taylor will also need to contribute with the bat for the Africans, who will be hoping to register their 10th win in their 38th ODI against the West Indies today.
The two sides will then move to St Vincent for the 3 remaining matches in the series on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

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