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WEST INDIES LACK FIRE AND FIGHT
It continues to perplex and infuriate fans of Test cricket why the West Indies have remained so bad for so long. It was way back in 1995 that the West Indies were officially dethroned as the world’s best Test team by Australia who took home the Sir Frank Worrell and they seem to have no intention of giving it back.
The sad thing is that we seem totally incapable of taking it so they might as well moth-ball that trophy because at the rate at which things are going, a hundred thousand years from now, archaeologists are going to dig it up from where ever it now sits in the land Down Under. Similarly, all the other trophies that we play for between the major Test playing nations are not going to be discovered here in the West Indies.
The thing that troubles me is why?
There have been numerous coaching changes, 13 captains, and different approaches to help the West Indies turn that enormously long corner they have been on for a few years now. However, as soon as the team looks like it is about to finally come out on the other side of that treacherous road of mediocrity it has been on for such a long time, it skids off into oblivion. The recent tour of India and the current New Zealand disaster, are the latest examples of the West Indies’ backward slide.
It is true that several key players are missing but that does not account for the lack of fight shown by this team currently trying to salvage the ongoing series in New Zealand. I am sure the team is missing the services of Chris Gayle, Kemar Roach, and Ravi Rampaul, but still that does not account for the quite ordinary performances we have seen from Marlon Samuels, Darren Bravo, Kieran Powell and others. There seems to be a general lack of confidence among the batsmen.
Samuels, for example, has been a shadow of himself. To be fair, ever since he was hit in the eye by that Lasith Malinga bouncer almost a year ago in the Australian Big Bash league, Samuels has been off his game. Maybe it was the time away from the game during his recovery or insecurities about his technique caused by the injury, or a combination of both, but Samuels has rarely looked like the confident stroke-maker and match winning player he was after he returned to the game following his two-year ban.
The others really do not have an excuse though. Chanderpaul aside, the other batsmen have looked like schoolboys at the crease and in the field. Remember these are professionals, people paid to perform and over these past few months maybe only Chanderpaul, Shillingford, who is now banned, Narine and maybe Darren Bravo, have earned their pay.
A big part of why this modern-day version of the West Indies plays as it does, I believe, has to do with a disconnect as to why we play cricket in the West Indies. It was the intent to dominate our former colonial masters and the desire to prove to the world that we in the Caribbean could be more than just entertainers; that we could also be the best in the world, that drove the team to the highest heights. I don’t believe that philosophy has connected with these modern players.
In fact, when I had heard that many of them had only lately seen the documentary Fire in Babylon that chronicled the development of the West Indies team into the juggernaut it became between the late 1970s and mid-1990s, I was not surprised. I was more surprised when I heard some of the players express that they were not aware of what helped forge the great West Indies team, the team that did not lose a Test series from between 1980 and 1995; a team that won back-to-back World Cups in 1975 and 1979.
They claimed that the documentary inspired them but I daresay that inspiration has now waned. The message has not resonated with these players spoiled by fat contracts and rich T20 leagues around the world.
When you watch this current team play, you don’t see the fight, the moxie to take on and topple the best teams in the world. On occasion you will see the fight that sparks fleeting moments of pride across the region, but it is never consistent. As soon as it flashes it’s gone.
http://gleanerblogs.com/sports/?p=2238
It continues to perplex and infuriate fans of Test cricket why the West Indies have remained so bad for so long. It was way back in 1995 that the West Indies were officially dethroned as the world’s best Test team by Australia who took home the Sir Frank Worrell and they seem to have no intention of giving it back.
The sad thing is that we seem totally incapable of taking it so they might as well moth-ball that trophy because at the rate at which things are going, a hundred thousand years from now, archaeologists are going to dig it up from where ever it now sits in the land Down Under. Similarly, all the other trophies that we play for between the major Test playing nations are not going to be discovered here in the West Indies.
The thing that troubles me is why?
There have been numerous coaching changes, 13 captains, and different approaches to help the West Indies turn that enormously long corner they have been on for a few years now. However, as soon as the team looks like it is about to finally come out on the other side of that treacherous road of mediocrity it has been on for such a long time, it skids off into oblivion. The recent tour of India and the current New Zealand disaster, are the latest examples of the West Indies’ backward slide.
It is true that several key players are missing but that does not account for the lack of fight shown by this team currently trying to salvage the ongoing series in New Zealand. I am sure the team is missing the services of Chris Gayle, Kemar Roach, and Ravi Rampaul, but still that does not account for the quite ordinary performances we have seen from Marlon Samuels, Darren Bravo, Kieran Powell and others. There seems to be a general lack of confidence among the batsmen.
Samuels, for example, has been a shadow of himself. To be fair, ever since he was hit in the eye by that Lasith Malinga bouncer almost a year ago in the Australian Big Bash league, Samuels has been off his game. Maybe it was the time away from the game during his recovery or insecurities about his technique caused by the injury, or a combination of both, but Samuels has rarely looked like the confident stroke-maker and match winning player he was after he returned to the game following his two-year ban.
The others really do not have an excuse though. Chanderpaul aside, the other batsmen have looked like schoolboys at the crease and in the field. Remember these are professionals, people paid to perform and over these past few months maybe only Chanderpaul, Shillingford, who is now banned, Narine and maybe Darren Bravo, have earned their pay.
A big part of why this modern-day version of the West Indies plays as it does, I believe, has to do with a disconnect as to why we play cricket in the West Indies. It was the intent to dominate our former colonial masters and the desire to prove to the world that we in the Caribbean could be more than just entertainers; that we could also be the best in the world, that drove the team to the highest heights. I don’t believe that philosophy has connected with these modern players.
In fact, when I had heard that many of them had only lately seen the documentary Fire in Babylon that chronicled the development of the West Indies team into the juggernaut it became between the late 1970s and mid-1990s, I was not surprised. I was more surprised when I heard some of the players express that they were not aware of what helped forge the great West Indies team, the team that did not lose a Test series from between 1980 and 1995; a team that won back-to-back World Cups in 1975 and 1979.
They claimed that the documentary inspired them but I daresay that inspiration has now waned. The message has not resonated with these players spoiled by fat contracts and rich T20 leagues around the world.
When you watch this current team play, you don’t see the fight, the moxie to take on and topple the best teams in the world. On occasion you will see the fight that sparks fleeting moments of pride across the region, but it is never consistent. As soon as it flashes it’s gone.
http://gleanerblogs.com/sports/?p=2238
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