“Time for new look West Indies – Gayle, Chanderpaul and Shillingford must go now – WI selectors too!”

Jul 06, 2014 Sports

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Colin E. H. Croft
Not next year, not next overseas tour, to South Africa come December, but right now, for Bangladesh’s Caribbean tour

next month, West Indies Test team needs changes!
They blunder aimlessly, making lame excuses, operating similarly to England, hiding behind whatever shadows they could find, while continuing to lose!
WI Director of Cricket Richard Pybus must get busy quickly for his own good, as nothing happened at Kensington Oval except asinine team tinkering that cost WI a Test and series too!
Immediately, Chris Gayle, Shiv Chanderpaul and Shane Shillingford must be put out to pasture; discarded.  Their “sell-by” dates are now past.
This trio are no longer fit for purposes at hand, if we believe suggestions that the highest WI priority is to rebuild a young team for a good future.
Shillingford, 31, was absolutely putrid in the 3rd Test v New Zealand, bowling 31 innocuous overs on that relatively spin-responsive pitch, surprising for K-O, conceding 134 runs, 4.3 runs per over, expensive for any spinner, getting no wickets.
Conversely, spin-twin Sulieman Benn managed fair match figures; 5-187, 52.2 overs, RPO 3.58 avg., literally bowling his fingers off after a similar marathon return; 86.3-26-151-5; at Queen’s Park Oval’s 2nd Test, a victorious game for WI that Shillingford missed.
Last week, as ‘those two little pals of mine’, off-spinner Sonny Ramadhin and left-arm spinner Alf Valentine, were remembered

for massive efforts, WI’s first Test win in England, Lords, 1950, unbelievable match figures too; 115-70-152-11 and 116-75-127-7 respectively; Shillingford looked badly out of place!
Captain Denesh Ramdin, whose wicket-keeping v NZ was also way below his normal standards, realized that he had been given a dud, allowing Shillingford only 13 overs in 78.2 overs first innings, 18 overs from 89.1 2nd innings overs; not enough for a front-line spinner.
Dis-armed of his “doosra”, ordained as illegal by ICC, severely depleting his repertoire, after, laughably, going through, for a 2nd time, bowling reconstruction by WICB and Australian coaches, Shillingford now operates like a sedated, muzzled Doberman, useless to any Test captain!
16 Tests, 70 wickets, 34.55 runs each, is average.  Losing Shillingford now will not hurt WI.
Ramdin’s confidence in Shillingford was low, putting extra pressure on other bowlers, after sightless selectors Clyde Butts, Courtney Browne and Robert Haynes; Coach Ottis Gibson is culpable too; dropped a bowler marginally successful at Q-P-O, Shannon Gabriel, to include untried newcomer Jason Holder.
Why that change from a winning combination at Q-P-O, and an extra, fifth, bowler, when, despite 2nd Test’s win, courtesy of only four bowlers, it was very obvious that WI’s batting needed stability?
Is that always silently lurking insularity of picking venue countries’ players becoming more visible again?
Holder managed just two wickets in 3rd Test to Gabriel’s four in Test No. 2.

Why was Gabriel dropped?
How do WI’s visually challenged selectors come to these equations anyway?
At Q-P-O, four bowers, six batsmen and a wicket-keeper, won.
How then could that translate to stupid, unnecessary changes, so that five bowlers, five batsmen, and a wicket-keeper should also win, when WI’s batting was almost always suspect, except in Test No. 2 v NZ?
People never change.  The sub-standard international cricketing careers of WI senior selectors Butts, Browne and Haynes have re-surfaced as tangible, all-encompassing lack of fore-though.  They are obviously devoid of understanding, imagination or appreciation for real cricketing excellence.
Paraphrasing, they are incompetent and should be fired; replaced; now!
Collectively, that entire façade and presentation by WI in Test No. 3 v NZ was quite distasteful!
Now 40, Chanderpaul’s excellent record-breaking race, like late, great racehorse “Sea-biscuit”, is now run.  Shiv, as a player, is no longer useful for immediate or future needs of WI cricket.
Also, from what I saw at QPO, 2nd Test, something I had never witnessed before, a bitter phenomenon I would never forget, Shiv’s seeming selfishness has become more acute, if indeed possible.
So, Darren Bravo had just been dismissed, after a magnificent career-building, game-changing 109, Bravo’s acclaimed 1st Test century in the Caribbean.
While exiting and entering Q-P-O’s out-field respectively, Bravo and Shiv exchanged no words whatsoever, not even furtive glances, so distant, by maybe 20 feet, were they separated, laterally, when they crossed, seeming like two suspicious strangers traversing some dark night.
Check television video tapes!
What about Shiv giving Darren a tap on the back, a hug even, words of “Congratulations”?
Or is it that Shiv cannot accept that WI’s batting parade has changed, that he is no longer Grand Poobah, or even necessary anymore?
So Chanderpaul made 11414 runs, 156 Tests, average 51.88, WI’s batting backbone this last decade.
So what?  He cannot go on forever, but life, and cricket, to quote (Sir) Winston Churchill, will ‘KBO’ – “keep buggering on!”
(Sir) Gary Sobers, Brian Lara, Steve Waugh and Sachin Tendulkar eventually stopped playing Tests too!
Gayle, 35; 102 Tests, 7141 runs, avg. 42; is similar to Chanderpaul.
How will continued Test inclusions for Gayle help WI?
WI loses Test series with these anyway, so we may as well chose younger, hungrier cricketers now.    Bravo, Kraigg Brathwaite, younger brigade, newer additions, must ‘KBO’!  Enjoy!

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