THE West Indies have rarely, if ever, assembled a younger, least experienced squad than they have for the second Cable & Wireless Test against Australia, starting at the Queen’s Park Oval Saturday.
It is, at one and the same time, an intimidating prospect against the strongest team presently in world cricket that already leads 1-0 in the series of four Tests and yet evidence that the development programmes of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and its member associations are at last bearing some fruit.
The average age of the 14 from whom the final eleven will be chosen is 25.92 years, compared to the 29.73 of Australia’s touring 15. They have played a combined total of 300 Tests, against 474 by the Australians.
Seven are under 23. Australia have only one player under 25.
It reflects a brave new policy under chief selector Sir Viv Richards. Its eventual success can only be achieved with patience and judged by time.
When 21-year-old fast bowler Jermaine Lawson was eliminated by chicken pox on Tuesday, Richards’ panel didn’t go for a more experienced replacement but instead called up uncapped Tino Best, also 21, for his first Test.
Similarly, the groin injury that forced out 35-year-old Ridley Jacobs has brought in 20-year-old Carlton Baugh, also for his debut, when tried, if no longer trusted, campaigners Courtney Browne and Junior Murray were still available.
Seeking a spinner to add variety to the ineffective bowling of the first Test, they plumped for a tall, slim 20-year-old offie, Omari Banks, whose selection not even his fellow Anguillans could have anticipated.
When Chris Gayle, still only 23 it should be noted, was omitted amidst contradiction and confusion, the left-handed opener Devon Smith was the obvious alternative as opener - and he is two years Gayle’s junior.
David Bernard, 21, was the all-rounder they identified as reward for performance in his first full season for Jamaica.
Only the 33-year-old veteran Vasbert Drakes and Best of the 16 called over the first two Tests have not graduated through the West Indies’ under-19 team.
The latest recruits from that source are Banks, Baugh and Smith, who were on the successful tour of England in 2001. Six have played on the ‘A’ team.
A common thread is Gus Logie.
Appointed coach for the current series and the subsequent encounter of three one-day internationals and two Tests against Sri Lanka, the West Indies batsman of the 1980s was in charge of the youth and ‘A’ teams when the majority of the new, young players had their first taste of international cricket.
In a straight-talking interview after he quit as senior coach at the end of his three year contract in March, his predecessor in both positions, Roger Harper identified one of the main problems he faced.
He spoke of the need to eliminate the scourge of insularity which, he said, was “creating monsters” of the players. It was a situation, he charged, that the public expected management to put right within a couple of months.
Logie has had enough contact with the young players to acknowledge Harper’s comments.
“It’s very difficult to try and change players’ techniques (once they get into the Test team) but we can work on their attitudes,” he observed after the first Test.
“We want them to have an attitude that says ‘I want to play for West Indies’, ‘I am committed to playing for West Indies’ and, at the end of the day, the skill will certainly show,” he said.
In his first stint as Test coach, he has under him a group of young players whose progress he has overseen on their way to the top.