“Against Australia in three Tests, West Indies batting will have to steel itself”

Apr 08, 2012 Sports

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Colin E. H. Croft
No, I am not an obeah-man, voodoo-man, sorcerer or soothsayer, even if I have survived many a plot!

Yes, I simply had premonitions and used common sense too; not even inside information had I got!
You will have noted, days early, in last week’s submission, that I actually named all of West Indies squad for Test No. 1, now on-going at Kensington Oval, Barbados.  That was actually easy to do so!
West Indies senior selectors – Chairman Clyde Butts, Robert Haynes and Courtney Browne – are predictable and consistent picking Test teams.  It is only for “A”, ODIs and T-20’s that they confound!
Darren Sammy, West Indies captain, reminded, before Test No. 1 started, that last time West Indies played Test cricket, they made over 500 runs, against India.  Butts also informed that his committee kept faith with players who were on that last tour.  No surprises there!
For Test No. 1 squad, though, only three players – Shiv Chanderpaul (137 Tests), Fidel Edwards (50 Tests) and Sammy (21 Tests) – have more than 20 Tests.  Indeed, the squad’s total Test appearances is a very paltry 309 Tests, exactly the same wickets as Lance Gibbs got his entire 18-year Test career!
West Indies squad’s aggregate age is 341 years, average age 26.2 years, average 23.7 Tests each.  This is misleading, though, given facts above.  Removing Chanderpaul’s age and experience; 37 years, 137 Tests; one could see how inexperienced in terms of Tests played, West Indies really are!
Only three players – Chanderpaul (49.28), Kirk Edwards (54.09) and Darren Bravo (52.50), have batting averages close to that mercurial 50.00 runs per Test innings.  West Indies youngest player is Kraigg Brathwaite, 19, while least experienced – 4 Tests – is 22 year old Kieran Powell.
Chanders, Edwards and Darren Bravo have massive responsibilities on their shoulders to carry this team, as West Indies will always be hard pressed when batting!  Theirs are the great hopes of survival!
Our selectors travel to all regional games played, either collectively or individually.  Along with Head Coach Ottis Gibson, they must have seen all of the players in the region.  I do not know how the selectors feel generally about our batting standard, but it does, as the young people say, “suck!”
There have not been many players making runs, or, for that matter, taking wickets, asking to be noticed.  This year has been another where extremely few new names have come up to be recognized, much less to be considered.  Besides those that we already know, our cupboard is quite sparse!
Each year, Guyana, Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago, Leeward Islands, Windward Islands and Jamaica contest our 1st Class season, to “gain superiority” against the others.  Even if they win, as Jamaica has done these last four years – they are looking for a fifth success with appearance in this year’s final – what have they gained, if anything, except bragging rights?  It is the almost useless leading the very useless!
Few of these 1st class games make any sense at all, as the same names perform just sufficiently creditably every season to be considered for international selection.  Most of them then normally perform extremely putridly in internationals.  Unfortunately, most will also return again next year too!
I would dare anyone to name, objectively, an additional six; only six; players, outside of those away at Indian Premier League, those that have been tried, tested, found wanting time and again, that we already know, and those included in West Indies 1st Test squad against Australia, who could, at the very least, command additional consideration for our present representative teams.  Very hard one, eh!
In passing, Jason Holder, 20 year old Barbadian all-rounder, Delorn Johnson, Windward Islands 23 year old left-arm fast bowler, Sheldon Cotterrell, Jamaica’s 22 year old left-arm fast bowler and 23 year old Trinidad & Tobago fast bowler Shannon Gabriel are, hopefully, almost immediate futures of West Indies.
Strangely, these are bowlers.  Where are the batsmen?  Anyway, if these four are not playing relatively regularly for West Indies within a year or two, I would simply accept, dejectedly, that they would have regressed sufficiently badly, similar to most of those who now ply their trade, to just making up numbers and taking space, in respective regional teams, without making real meaningful contributions.
Check this out!  Even with unavailability because of West Indies 1st Class semi-finals – Guyana v Jamaica and T&T v Barbados – West Indies’ cricket fraternity should shudder with horror, wonder and disbelief when Devon Smith, after so many years – 33 Tests, Test average 24.71, 1st Class average 35.54 – could still be considered for West Indies Cricket Board’s President XI.  Where exactly are we going with this?
Those recent regional semi-finals should have been informational and instructional.  Jamaica v Guyana, at revered Sabina Park, and Barbados v Trinidad & Tobago, as similarly considered Queen’s Park Oval, both lasted only three days; just.  Only one team made 200 plus; only four batsmen made more than 50!
Donavan Pagon, 53, Tamar Lambert, 51, and Xavier Marshall, 59, all for Jamaica – “The Land of wood and water” – made half centuries against Guyana – “The Land of many waters” – who, set only 260 to win, lost by a massive 133 runs.  Neither team even managed to get 200!  May be just too much water!
Trinidad & Tobago v Barbados was a new low!  With two of present senior West Indies Test batsmen in its ranks – Darren Bravo and Adrian Barath – “The Red Force” was powerless, destroyed for a meager 84 and 128 in two innings.  What exactly is this?  Even beach cricket produces more runs!
Only Barbados’ pugnacious Jonathan Carter made a half-century – 52 – while Barbados made 216, the only above-200 score in eight – yes, eight innings – in our regional 1st Class semi-finals, no less.  Mind you, these were not exactly reserves.  Most of these cricketers had international exposure already!
I would ask that hanging question again.  All regional teams have so many supposed coaches that players can use one for cleaning teeth, another for whitening shoes!  Obviously, these coaches seem not to be able to teach batsmen to make runs!  What the hell are these coaching doing exactly?
It is of little wonder that one selector mentioned recently; “Crofty, we have few real cricketers.  We only have people who try to play cricket!”  This situation reeks of decidedly desperate cricketing poverty!
In days of yore, Charlie and Brian Davis, Richie Richardson, Gordon and Geoffrey Greenidge, Irving Shillingford, Vivian Richards, Larry Gomes, Clive Lloyd, Basil Butcher, Alvin Kallicharran, Rohan Kanhai, Seymour Nurse, Peter Lashley, Garfield Sobers, Robin Bynoe, Easton Mc Morris, Maurice Foster, all Test players, while not always active in Test teams, made runs like rain playing for their respective countries.
Consider others who played few Tests; Richard Austin, Collis King, Alvin Greenidge and Basil Williams; or those who never got a sniff at all; Renford Pinnock, Richard De Souza, Timmy Mohammed, Emerson Trotman, Jim Allen, Andrew Lyght, Ralston Otto; who, despite massive runs, never made big!
Chris Gayle and IPL boys may return may be in the future.  Now, reality of West Indies batsmanship will show.  We can hope that it is good enough to survive 15 Test days!  Enjoy!

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