Team for the tour of England

[cantplaycantalk]

Well the first test is now only a little over two weeks away, who will be in the XI?

[darksideofthemoon]

The usual suspects

1 Strauss
2 Cook
3 Vaughan
4 Bell
5 Pietersen
6 Collingwood
7 Flintoff
8 Nixon (Vaughan's influence will get him in)
9 Hoggard
10 Harmison
11 Panesar

[Speedboy Salesman]

I really hope Nixon isn't the keeper. I mean, he's done OK for the ODI's but I can't see him doing the biz as Test keeper.

[Maranello]

hmm...I thought this was a thread about the West Indian team to tour England?!?

Not everything revolves around English cricket you know...

[greg]

Originally Posted by Maranello

hmm...I thought this was a thread about the West Indian team to tour England?!?

That is exactly what i thought.

With Sarwan as captain it will be interesting to see how they get on,a lot depends on Gayle and Chanderpaul backing him up to get runs or the West indies could get pummelled like they did last time they toured England.

[darksideofthemoon]

Sorry, I was picturing the England team touring around England.

[cantplaycantalk]

Yep definately about the West Indies team, that's why it is in the West Indies forum. Note my teams foot in each camp for me in this series. Although I will be cheering for England. To be fair West Indies cricket is at a crossroads, if a few good players do not come through soon then cricket could lose out in the caribbean to some of the american sports, and football.

West Indies do have some good players but are lacking in quality throughout the team at the moment and I can forsee a serious hammering against England, the English bowling is stronger in every aspect and England have a better batting line up as well. Not looking good for the Windies this time around.

[Ninjaman]

I'd like to think WI are at a T junction.

Either go on the right avenue or continue down the same ignorant path they are already on

I'm Jamaican. It may surprise some but football is my favourite sport.

Cricket will never surpass it in my eyes though I love it passionately. I also love boxing, have a more than passing interest in track and field athletics, tennis and boxing and have a decent grounding in the US sports.

I can assure you that that is the case for hundreds of thousands of Jamaicans and always has been. Cricket and football, even during the time of WI cricketing dominance, has always been vying for the title of the island's #1 sport.

Added to that, over the decades Jamaica has always produced world class track athletes.

There are more than enough people for the island to have an interest in all sports.

This situation is replicated in Trinidad, for example, though Barbados has always been much more pro-cricket.

Maybe that is the reason it has produced so many great players in proportion to the other islands.

In football, Jamaica qualified for the World Cup in 1998 and T&T in 2006 by hiring a good coach who came in with all the tools to do his job

He picked the best players for the job, sweeped out the trash, installed discipline and instituted a plan to focus what little talent they had for the job at hand.

Sprinkle a little luck (which we all need) and "Voila!", WC qualification was theirs.

For years (I can only speak about Jamaica) they had individually talented players who if they had grown up in a country with the correct system to harness that talent could have been world class footballers.

Sadly, that never happened.

The same dire conditions that football has historically had, exist now in WI cricket.

There are loads of talented youngsters who can play cricket and would do so in an instant right now!

I would suggest this is the same all over the cricketing world.

The difference is in Australia, for example, they have a system to first SPOT the talent, NURTURE it and then at every level, challenge the player and then the requisite reward/punishment for success or failure.

This is not there in the West Indies.

Our team is full of guys who for years are happy with averaging a mere 30.

Ganga is seriously considered as a potential captain with his 20+ average after so many years.

Edwards, for example, is seriously considered and awarded a retainer (central) contract after a Test average of 44 over 25 Tests.

I doubt such mediocrity would be rewarded by any other nation.

Until a system is put in place to produce players of a high quality and not one that sees talented but intermittently successful players and HOPES they succeed, the WI will always be in the position it is now.

West Indies do have some good players but are lacking in quality throughout the team at the moment and I can forsee a serious hammering against England, the English bowling is stronger in every aspect and England have a better batting line up as well. Not looking good for the Windies this time around.

I would be surprised if it is not another 4-0.

[Richard Jenkins]

The captain will be Ramnarash Sarwan and I think he chooses with the selectors today.

I expect


Shivnarine Chanderpaul
Corey Collymore
Fidel Edwards
Chris Gayle
Denesh Ramdin
Ramnaresh Sarwan
Marlon Samuels
D Bravo
D Smith
Darren Ganga
Jerome Taylor
To be in the touring party

[Ninjaman]

Here goes:

The squad for TESTS only.

Ramnaresh Sarwan (captain)
Daren Ganga
Devon Smith
Chris Gayle
Shiv Chanderpaul
Runako Morton
Sylvester Joseph
Dwayne Bravo
Denesh Ramdin
Darren Sammy
Corey Collymore
Jerome Taylor
Daren Powell
Fidel Edwards
Ravi Rampaul