On The Cricket Pitch

The glass is half empty

Philip Hackett

Thursday,  July 21, 2005

Thankfully, the mini Test series between Sri Lanka and West Indies is now half way over. So low are the expectations for our cricketers nowadays that Shivnarine Chanderpaul, joined by one or two highly respected journalists, has praised the effort of the stand-in side despite the fact that they lost to an obviously rusty Sri Lankan team inside four days. That the match was extended well into the fourth day was due more to the weather than any meaningful defiance on the part of the West Indies players.

Hopefully, when all the rhetoric has been completed, the West Indies camp will pay attention to a few significant realities.

Dwayne Smith has much to do to prove he belongs at this level. He could possibly have just one more opportunity in the second Test as on the current evidence it will be difficult to envisage him retaining a place when the contract row has been settled.

Smith came into the match as the second most senior Test batsman behind Chanderpaul, having played some six matches, and with a century to his name. Not only did he fail miserably, but looked far less convincing than his fellow Barbadian Tino Best, who batted at number ten. Best compiled 27 without too many alarms, and apart from a few deliveries against Muralitharan early in his innings, only seemed vulnerable when he assayed the occasional over-ambitious stroke, as was the case with his eventual dismissal.

Best is a more than capable lower order batsman, but until he recognises that, whether batting or bowling, there is more to cricket than silly, immature showmanship, he is likely to remain within the limits of mediocrity with bat and ball.

I will try to resist the temptation to criticise the captaincy of Chanderpaul, as I cannot imagine the best possible leadership extracting more from the assembly of West Indians called upon to represent the WICB in this farcical Test match that was as much an insult to the people of Sri Lanka as they sought to celebrate their 150th Test appearance, as it was to the Caribbean cricket public. I do hope though that, when the full strength team has been reassembled, the selectors/Board will do the sensible thing and return the captaincy to Lara, who, with all his weaknesses, is still far superior to Chanderpaul. Another option would be to appoint Ramnaresh Sarwan as captain, despite the fact that he is not a poster boy for Digicel.

Were it not for the obvious rust on a Sri Lankan team clearly showing the effects of a lengthy period away from Test cricket, the outcome of the first Test may have been even more embarrassing.

Ramdin had an encouraging start to his Test career, an occurrence that is not at all unusual for West Indian players. Fidel Edwards, Dwayne Smith, Marlon Samuels, Jermaine Lawson, Ricardo Powell, and to a lesser extent Omari Banks, all made impressive starts to their international careers. What will determine success or failure in the long run will be the manner in which Ramdin is handled by the Board and team management.
The handling of Xavier Marshall is a classic case of mismanagement. Marshall was highly successful for Jamaica in last year’s regional limited overs tournament, but he has played little first class cricket and it showed during his horrendous one-day international campaign earlier in the year, and again in Sri Lanka. He is obviously a talented player and a good score could be just around the corner, but the future of West Indies cricket cannot be effectively built on spasmodic performances.

The important task of player development cannot be left to the individual Boards throughout the region. They will play a role in developing young players, but when the talent has been recognized the WICB has the responsibility of adding the finishing touches. It is the only practical way forward for a region with limited resources and facilities. If individual Boards are left on their own to deal with player development the results will reflect the relative wealth of these Boards rather than the cricketing potential of the players from the respective countries. In other words the countries with the best resources will get more players in the West Indies team, but these may not necessarily be the most talented.

Chairman of selectors Joey Carew made the point recently that Carlton Baugh should have been working with Jackie Hendricks and Jeffrey Dujon, while Ramdin should have been under the influence of David Williams. Such a strategy was fine in the days prior to professional cricket. While it would be great for these former players and others to be involved in guiding young cricketers, it is not something that can be left to chance.

The same Board that has found it possible to maintain a bloated secretariat, that has proven to be embarrassingly ineffective time and time again, can surely find the funds to assemble a pool of knowledgeable and capable resource persons to chart the way forward for our young, talented cricketers before they even reach Bennett King and his Australian entourage. It is a project that must be given the highest priority if we hope to become a consistent competitive force in the foreseeable future and avoid the ignominy of having the legality of bowling actions questioned repeatedly with the whole world watching.

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