On the brink
By Orin Davidson
Stabroek News
March 31, 2007
Any number of factors can be pinpointed for the latest West Indies World Cup defeat, but the reality is that the home team is suddenly playing as if it is in another competition.
It now appears as though their World Cup began and ended in Jamaica after three games.
Australia made them look like schoolboys initially when they defeated the hosts by 103 runs. On Thursday New Zealand sank the knife deeper into the wound to place the home team on the brink of a humiliating second round elimination.
This is all because of the West Indies' inability to bat the way they should.
Thursday's pathetic 177-run total was a common batting frailty against quality bowling.
Their debacle was not administered by a potent Australia line-up with Brett Lee and Glen McGrath to the fore nor the fast-growing Sri Lanka pace and spin attack, nor the full strength Pakistan line-up. This was a New Zealand team with one match winner and one other good bowler.
Shane Bond has long been considered one of the world's premier pacemen and he was the main reason the West Indies went down by the embarrassing margin of seven-wickets Thursday.
He placed West Indies on the back foot from the inception
with his searing pace and movement to which the top order had no answer.
And when the necessary back-up support was needed the other key man, Daniel Vettori, stepped up to the plate.
They did not need a third or a fourth man to set up the winning platform because the West Indies batting was poor enough. And it has been bad for much too long.
Natural ability can take a player only a short part on the road to big time accomplishment and there are too many of the type in the team presently.
A player cannot be expected to come good if he continues to get out the same way eight or nine out of 10 times he takes to the crease.
Hope will not correct flawed technique, or make a batsman better on his feet.
These things have to be worked on continuously but unfortunately no one within the WICB seems to understand or care.
Every other team in the world has specialist coaches for either batsmen, bowlers and in Australia's case one for fielding.
West Indies has never had any known to the public except a fielding coach for a brief period.
One really does not know clearly what the current team has
and how they are handled.
There is a head coach, an assistant coach, a departed physical trainer and more recently a team coordinator, now manager, in addition to a captain. We are not sure who is responsible for what, but it is clear to fans and supporters that the inconsistent performances are not about to end.
It will continue once the batsmen encounter good bowling.
They failed against Australia because of an inability to apply themselves. And the same was the case against New Zealand. Unless help is forthcoming the pattern will continue whether captain Brian Lara quits the team now or plays on to 40 years. That is a problem in itself.
Another major irritant is the strategies used especially in the shorter form of the game.
Jerome Taylor's axing against New Zealand was a bombshell decision of a type that occurs too much for comfort and which does nothing to help the team's batting struggles.
Bowling is not as important to victory as batting is in one-day games but it helps greatly.
Taylor might not be at his best. He may be a bit tired, but it made little sense to omit him, not for a better strike bowler, for which there is none available, but inexplicably for an eighth specialist batsman, in a 50 overs a side game.
These lapses summed up a woeful week for West Indies in Antigua. The two losses caused lots of pain, but the truth often hurts. And the painful one is that this West Indies team is not equipped to win World Cup 2007.