The problems with West Indian cricket

[Paoli]

Originally Posted by Ninjaman

First off, the WI board has had loads of money in its time and somehow wastes it.

I will leave it there lest W-A-T be sued

Now, whose fault is it that there are hardly any bowling machines in the WI???

You are countering an argument I have never made.

No, I didn't try to counter that argument, all I said was in reply to you saying the Windies aren't good enough. I said I think they are, they just don't have the facilities.

[greg]

When you look at the West Indies team that lost at home to England in 2004 and look at the current side it would appear they have got worse with virtually the same players.Take Edwards for example,he was being touted as the great hope who was raw and learning his trade yet 18 months on he hasn't improved and if anything has gone backwards.It amazes me that a team containing Lara,Chanderpaul,Sarwan and Gayle can fail so often to get decent scores,and finally what the hell has happened to Dwayne Bravo?he looked a future star and he can't even get in the team now.

Though i do have to say that picking a man who sounds like a pornstar to keep wicket made me chuckle.Ramdin Balldeep

Seriously though i hope they can sort it out quickly or the World Cup will be a bit of a farce like it was in England when the hosts were appaulingly bad.I always want the hosts to progress a long way as it adds to the atmosphere at the matches.

[Rachael]

Originally Posted by Beny

My oppinion would be that Edwards is not the compleate bowler, he is quick and has control however he does'nt quite understand bowling as an art-form yet.

He's got an action from hell, slingy, round arm and low. He's also short. From the very start he's denied the advantages of bowlers who can get steep bounce and the luxury of being able to get away with landing the ball just back of a length.

Forced by the height of release to focus on pitching the ball up... Edwards is going to need control and guile beyond anything that the likes of McGrath, Harmison and Flintoff will ever need.. and yet that action means he's going to really struggle with his line unless he's in absolutely top form.. and it's going to make guile difficult - he's going to find mere consistency tough enough... and he's going to have to find it whilst mixing up the deliveries (and can you see him moving the ball the other way with that action? It's possible, but unlikely).

He might manage it.. but not in the next 2-3 years!

Originally Posted by Beny

From all acounts I've heard, Aussie coaches who go over to WI are amazed at the talent around. [...]No there is plenty of talent there.

If you look at the talents than succeed, most of them have 10 years hard work under their belt.

People tend to overlook the hard work that Lara put in to reach the top. They tend to overlook the fact that Chanderpaul has, through even more hard work, perhaps overtaken the great man as the WI most dependable bat. Many seem to forget how long it took Walsh to become the great player he eventually was: he worked phenomenally hard, not least in County Cricket. He, however, had the luxury of coming into a WI side with top bowlers ahead of him: if Fidel Edwards had started out alongside players of the calibre of Marshall, Holding and Garner then he'd have had somewhere to hide and some folk to guide him... but it's tough with just Tino "the clown" Best for company....

Get this:

Bowling                      O      M      R      W
Marshall                    15      5     25      2
Garner                       7      0     24      2
Holding                      9.2    3     21      6

That's Walsh's 1st innings bowling analysis on debut: Australia all out for 76 in 31.2 overs. He could be allowed a gentle run out in the second innings with the game already won!

In the third Test of Walsh's debut season the WI were without Holding and Walsh didn't really take the great man's place 2/88 off 24 and then 0/20 off 4 aren't figures to substitute for a guy who took 15 wickets t 16.6 off 88.1 overs in the series... but as Marshall was there to take 5/69 and then 5/38.. it didn't really matter.

Oh... the WI batting line up? CG Greenidge, DL Haynes, RB Richardson, HA Gomes, IVA Richards, PJL Dujon, CH Lloyd: Lara at his peak would have got in... but that's a different league from the "talent" today!

[Ninjaman]

The only thing holding them back is team unity, experiance and a good mental attitude. In my oppinion their Aussie coach can help bring about two of those but it is up to the individual to take care of the rest.

And herein is where I disagree.

The only problem??

If the WI was a person, their therapist would be planning a new house from all the sessions they'd need!!

So why ar'nt the WI players going to England? Surely the young kids could be even if the likes of Smith are too busy on Int. Duty.

WI play Test matches straight up into June and July now. I remember one series in the caribbean starting in late January. Now the Test matches start in late March or even April sometimes.

Coupled with that there has been a clearly conscious decision by many counties and league teams to not bother signing WI players. That is not conjecture on my point. I won't go into more on that as I only have 2nd hadn knowledge given to me by others. But I can't say I blame them sometimes.

What about Chand? I can't really see him as captain material- about as inspiring as 'droopy' and not quite as funny. I say give Lara back the captaincy, dont let him run from the challange. If WI cricket is going to work then he needs to be inolved.

He's been captain twice and been removed twice. The 2nd time for reasons with nothing to do with cricket.
All the time when WI were losing when he was captain, he got it in the neck for every decision he made which was analysed over and over again.

Now WI are still losing and the same level of criticism against Chanderpaul is absent.

Maybe people are now realising that who the captain is comes secondary when a "cancer" riddles the whole team and structure.

Actually, Bennett King is the captain

Some of you guys don't understand what Lara has to put up with just for being him. He was asked to be captain the 2nd time and he took it as, in his words, "he is a servant of WI cricket". I'm almost sure he would take it again if asked but I feel it is unfair to burden him a 3rd time.

BTW What language do the WI islands speak? Some of the playes speak fluent english whilst the others are impossible to understand.

English. Many of the players speak English with a strong accent from whatever island they are from.

But many of them are like a deer in a headlight when a camera is in their face.

They will learn how to cope with this in time but that alone is indicative of the experience of the players coming through.

[Vrock]

I think that if they keep going back to Lara WI will just go down the same road again, this endless loop of inconsistency. If they are going to change they should stick with that choice and try to bring one bit of consistency into the side.