“Travelling West Indies teams to Australia and India need to continue recent upward mobility!”

Jan 27, 2013 Sports

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Colin E. H. Croft

West Indies senior men’s tour to Australia, for a series of One-Day Internationals and T-20-I’s, could not have come at a better time, given that euphoria we experienced in Caribbean T-20 2013.
Similarly, West Indies Women, having just done excellently against higher-ranked South African Women, tying the ODI series, beating the Lady Proteas in both T-20-I’s, must become even more focused, to try to emulate their male counterparts, by winning ICC Women’s World Cup 2013 in India!
Dr. Julian Hunte, President of West Indies Cricket Board, was correct in hailing our ladies “superb.” Coming from two games down, to tie that ODI series, took tremendous gumption, marvelous cricket too, from our female representatives! They really were that good!
Having beaten South Africa in T-20’s and tying at 50-over games, WIW must not complacently think that they might easily manage outsiders India and Sri Lanka, even if they lose to World Champions England in Group stages of the longer WWC 50-overs format.
Cricket is never played that way, in any format! Every game involving WIW is crucial to their progress in this 2013 competition!
Charlotte Edwards, England’s present captain, leading a team that has won ICC WWC three times, last in 2009, has already signaled team intention to be ruthless:
“As International cricketers, this is the ultimate prize for us. This England team is used to high expectations being placed on us. Since 2009, this expectation is something we have had to deal with, something that has spurred us on. We relish it. ICC Women’s World Cup 2013 is a real challenge!”
West Indies captain Merissa Aguilleira will have to lead with similar aplomb, as present v South Africa, if West Indies Women are to progress well in this competition. She would be depending much on senior lieutenants, Stephanie Taylor, Deandra Dottin and Anisa Mohammed!
Oh, in passing, not surprisingly, Trinidad & Tobago won Caribbean T-20 2013, seemingly the only team to have been properly prepared, even if they did have home advantage for half of the competition.
It should be noted that playing at home does bring on its pressures. Windward Islands, led by West Indies present captain, Darren Sammy, no less, played at “home” too, in St. Lucia, yet could not even make the semis! Playing at home is not always a blessing!
Also, as you would have read here, I had named T&T and Guyana as joint favourites before the competition started, so it was not surprising to me that they met in that unbelievably poor final.
Where exactly was Guyana that day? Where were their supposed superstars, especially Ramnaresh Sarwan?
To compound his abject failure in CT-20 2013 by selecting him in that team for Australia was a great an insult of evolving cricketers as me making a comeback! Sarwan did not deserve his Australian selection!
Anyway, those six ODI’s and solitary T-20-I that our senior representative men will play v resurgent Aussies will give us a general overview of where West Indies men are as regards one day cricket overall, not just for T-20’s. The extended one-day format allows for so many variables, all correctable!
Australia does have its hands full with Sri Lanka now, with the Tigers holding their own well, carrying the furious fight to their hosts in the continuing ODI’s, after being annihilated in the Test series.
However, Michael Clarke’s men are the architects, starting from the era of Mark “Tubby’ Taylor’s captaincy, of four and five runs per over in even Test innings, nearly 400 runs in a full day in Test cricket.
It is not entirely impossible that Australia could continue, as they seemed to have been doing these last five years, to always try to score at least 350, if not nearly 400, in every 50-over game. Their aggressive nature is always prevalent, with the set objective to overwhelm oppositions with massive scores!
Yes, West Indies are World T-20 2012 Champions, but 50-overs cricket is a very different ball-game altogether, pardoning that pun.
It takes much more strategy, and longer concentration, to get through 50 overs per team, possibly 100 overs in one day.
Intensity here may not always be that obvious, but it is immense!
In the not too distant past, when West Indies were dominant in Test cricket, some opposition Test innings did not last as long as 50 overs – 300 legal deliveries.
One has to put into proper perspective how difficult it is, in this era of T-20 games, how much more pin-pointed thoughts must be for 50 overs!
Later this year, in England, ICC holds it final Champions Trophy competition, the only other world cricket championship that runs 50-overs, to go with ICC’s overall Premier Competition, its 50-overs World Cup.
These games in Australia, then a similar series, v Zimbabwe, next two months, should assist West Indies men in understanding where they as regards that possibility of holding both ICC T-20 Championship and, hopefully, ICC Champion Trophy, all in about one calendar year! Can we all be dreaming here?
West Indies men and women travel with our best wishes. May they be highly successful! Enjoy!

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