All of a sudden, the West Indies cricket
team has fallen from the summit of success to the valley of failure; and we are
beginning to become baffled again.
A few weeks ago, we were basking in
the glory of the T20 Championship success; we followed that up with a comprehensive
2-0 Series win in the recently concluded Test series against Bangladesh. The captain
felt so confident about continued success that he predicted a 5-0 whitewash in
the ongoing ODI series.
But the fortunes have reversed in
dramatic fashion; and it is the West Indies facing the prospect of a whitewash in
the hands of Bangladesh. We have lost both the first and second ODI's. In the second one we were thrashed by 160 runs - a record for Bangladesh!
West Indies is currently rated number
8 in the ODI world ranking and our standard of play in the current ODI series
against Bangladesh is a glowing tribute to that ranking. We were 7 or 8 in the
T20 but shocked the cricketing world with success. Consequent upon the Test
Series win over Bangladesh, we earned a couple of points but remained at
number 8 in the test rankings.
What is the Windies problem? Why is
our performance like "wave action"? One moment, we are at the crest crushing
everything in our path and the other moment, we are at the trough being unbelievably
crushed by even the weakest team. Yes! One moment we play like we are the best in
the world and the other moment, we play like “boy scouts” who have never played
cricket before.
If you followed the recent test series,
you would surely notice that the success of the team in the two test against
Bangladesh was built among five batsman and two bowlers: Chanderpaul, Bravo, Powell,
Ramdin and Samuel; and Tino Best (and to some extent Veerasammy and Edwards). Only
two of the successful batsmen (Samuel & Bravo) were retained for the ODI
series and Tino Best - whose bowling "bursts and spurts" posed considerable difficulty to the Bangladeshi
batsmen - was inexplicably omitted.
Despite all the “mystery” about his
bowling, Narine has been unimpressive so far. Gayle too has not produced; Sammy
has been ordinary. To complicate matters, Pollard and Russell - despite their recent sequence of failure - were inexplicably
brought into the team.
So where does the problem lie? Is it
with the players or selectors? Your judgment is as good as mine!
I want to argue that West Indies
performances in the T20 Championship and the Test Series against Bangladesh
were just snippets of success of a powerful lineup on paper. The manner in
which we crashed in the first two ODI’s must send us back to the drawing board
for review, for it is so "un-natural" for a team loaded with such overwhelming talent
to be struck by the gravity of failure so easily and suddenly.
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