Woeful West Indies While West Indies were boo-ed The Zimbabweans were buoyant West Indies cannot blame worse than this. No – really – they cannot. Admittedly the team has regularly plumbed depths which we did know before had existed. The disastrous tour to Australia earlier this year, when every match was lost, was bad enough, but, at least, there was the excuse that their opponents were the world champions. The 26 runs defeat to Zimbabwe in the Twenty/20 mis-match at the Queen’s Park Oval, Port of Spain, Trinidad was in a league of its own. Can there have been a more pathetic performance in any match of international competition? Maybe – you can never bet on anything where West Indies are concerned. Here, at the scene of so many well-cheered triumphs, the West Indian players were boo-ed from the field. Zimbabwe have fallen so far from even the modest standards of a decade ago that they are denied Test Match cricket. They rank last – and by far – of the “recognised” cricket nations. The Africans are sustained neither by tradition nor depth of competition. It was impossible for West Indies to lose, but somehow they found a way of achieving just that. That takes an exhibition of rare genius to achieve. The impossible seemed to be even more impossible when Zimbabwe lost a wicket to the first ball of the match to left-arm spinner Suliman Benn, who reduced the tourists to 3 down with no runs on the board on his way to taking four wickets, and Daren Sammy chipped in with five wickets at the close of the innings. West Indies were undone by spin. The margin of humiliation could have been worse because two comparatively easy catches were missed in the deep and the batsmen were given the benefit in two borderline stumping appeals (which, I felt, could have gone one either way). The side lacked the services of regular captain Chris Gayle who was resting after the exertions in Australia – but in Australia he had shown himself to be a spent force after his heroic achievements towards the end of last year. The words has been bruited already that groundsmen at the venues where the matches in the forthcoming limited-overs series are to be played should amend the pitches to make them less helpful to spin – thereby making the outcome less one-sided. While the West Indians were boo-ed, the Zimbabweans were buoyant. After their own seemingly inadequate first innings they could not have dreamed that their opponents would perform even worse. Whereas the victors must beware of putting too great an emphasis on what could yet prove to be a “false dawn”, West Indies know that the twilight which has descended on their game is anything but false.            Clayton Goodwin 28th February 2010     W(h)ither West Indies? You have seen the results Following on yesterday’s letter I have noticed that West Indies’ cricket has suffered yet another blow with further defeat in Australia. They have just not been in the contest. There are extenuating circumstances for the team not playing to its full capacity in that so many leading players are missing – Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Dwayne Bravo, Jerome Taylor and Fidel Edwards. It is rather a lot. Even so, although it may excuse the failure to perform to the highest international standard, it is not an excuse for continual defeat: the Australians, too, have been reduced to playing a team which has been far from being fully representative. Six years ago as West Indies were being steamrollered – yet again – in England I engaged in a heated debate with some (English) spectators who contended that there was nothing wrong with the regional game and that West Indies would “come again”. They argued with some justification that form was cyclical and that other teams had come back from even deeper and longer periods of depression. Nevertheless there is something very different in the decline and fall of West Indies. Commentators speak of the great teams led by Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards as if it were only a few years ago. It is now a life-time and more ago. West Indies have not won a series in England since 1988 ..... that is 22 years ago. They did not lose a series in the 1990s, but neither did they win one. The series in 1991 and 1995 were drawn. The former is particularly interesting because although West Indies were the dominant side their performance fell away so much in two matches that their opponents were able to square the rubber. Five years later even Brian Lara batting at his brilliant best could not tip the balance in their favour. Something had gone out of the soul. It was immediately after that series that I wrote the article “W(h)ither West Indies ?” in Wisden Cricket Monthly predicting the imminent decline of the region as a force in cricket.   It is not true, either, that success in cricket is inevitably cyclical. Philadelphia in the U.S.A. was once a force in the international game. That was just over a hundred years ago when the greater part of the globe was “painted red” of the British Empire - neither is success cyclical in politics or world-power. The return of Chanderpaul, Sarwan, Bravo, Taylor and Edwards – plus the discovery of one or two new and talented players – should provide greater resolution, but until then West Indies cricket is primarily, and probably solely, Chris Gayle, and when the gale blew out after his heroic efforts towards the end of last year ...... well, you have seen the results. I do not argue that West Indies cricket “cannot” come back, but to do so needs much more than depending on the “cyclical” nature of success in cricket. Clayton Goodwin 19th February 2010 Ottis Gibson is new West Indies head coach He warns – Forget fixation with the “glory days” Ottis Gibson has been appointed new WICB head coach, and has warned West Indies that the fixation with the region’s “glory days” must plan if the projected reinvestment in grass-roots cricket is to bear fruit. The 40 year-old Barbadian has relinquished his role as England’s bowling coach for the forthcoming home limited-overs against Zimbabwe. The green shoots of West Indian cricket recovery have been perceived in their recent Test Match “fight back” against Australia and the Under-19 team finishing third in their recent World Cup in New Zealand. "It's obviously an exciting new time for me," Gibson told BBC Sport. "Things were going well with England, but the call to come back and try to do my part to resurrect West Indies cricket was one I couldn't say no to. Grass-roots cricket is going to be the biggest challenge over the next couple of years," he added. "We'll be spending time and resources there, because the most important thing in sport is youth, and what's coming up behind the players who are there now. We need to put time, money and effort into those guys." Gibson, himself fast bowler who was particularly effective with the old ball, has enjoyed his greatest success after his two-match Test career from 1995 to 1999 ended. His hard-hitting lower-order batting was an asset in his 15 limited-overs internationals. Ottis twice took five wickets in an innings against Sri Lanka. In English county cricket he played for both Glamorgan and Durham as well as representing three provincial sides in South Africa. The Barbadian’s form for Durham, whom he joined in 2006, eclipsed all that had gone before. In his first season there he hit 155, his highest first-class score, and in the next took all 10 wickets in an innings for 47 runs against Hampshire. At the end of that summer he was appointed England’s bowling coach. Clayton Goodwin 4th February 2010   The West Indies Cricket Board has named the following players for the upcoming limited-overs tour of Australia: 1. Chris Gayle (Captain) 2. Dwayne Bravo (Vice Captain) 3. Narsingh Deonarine 4. Travis Dowlin 5. Runako Morton 6. Nikita Miller 7. Brendan Nash 8. Kieron Pollard 9. Denesh Ramdin 10. Ravi Rampaul 11. Kemar Roach 12. Darren Sammy 13. Lendl Simmons 14. Dwayne Smith 15. Gavin Tonge Team Management: Joel Garner (Team Manager), David Williams (Coach), Henderson Springer (Assistant Coach), C.J Clark (Physiotherapist), Hector Martinez Charles (Strength & Conditioning Coach), Richard Berridge (Video & Statistical Analyst), Philip Spooner (Media Officer), Virgil Browne (Massage Therapist). Several players are unavailable for selection due to injury: Daren Bravo, Adrian Barath, Sulieman Benn, Shiv Chanderpaul, Fidel Edwards, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Jerome Taylor. Speaking on the team, Clyde Butts (Chairman of Selectors for the West Indies Cricket Board) outlined: On the team unit: We believe the team will do very well in Australia in the 50-over format as well as the T20 Internationals. We have faith in the players and we believe the team can beat Australia. Before we went to Australia for the Test matches, the team was not given a chance by many people, but we saw how well they bounced backed after the first Test and challenged the Aussies in Adelaide and Perth. On selections: We are missing some key players due to injuries, but this is an opportunity for other players to re-establish themselves. We have selected some allrounders who we believe have the ability to be match-winners at the international level. Dwayne Smith and Kieron Pollard have been a bit disappointing in the past, but they have displayed the ability to perform on the Twenty/20 stage, and we think they will be major assets in the squad. Looking forward: There is a lot of cricket to be played in the next five months and we have to be prepared. The players have been working hard and we are looking to do well in Australia and also to continue that work when we return home for the series against Zimbabwe in late February and March. After that we have the much-anticipated ICC T20 World Cup and at home and we want to be fully prepared for that. Following that tournament we face South Africa at home at that will be another major battle. Overall, we want to see the players make progress as individuals, see the team make strides as a unit and get West Indies cricket back up the ladder. Tour schedule February 4: vs Prime Minister’s XI, Canberra One-Day Internationals February 7: 1st ODI at MCG, Melbourne February 9: 2nd ODI at Adelaide Oval, Adelaide February 12: 3rd ODI at SCG, Sydney February 14: 4th ODI at Gabba, Brisbane February 19: 5th ODI at MCG, Melbourne T20 Internationals February 21: at Bellerive Oval, Hobart February 23: at SCG, Sydney