Perhaps players did not realise West Indian Wickets Matter
Dear Editor,
England came from behind and scored an impressive 2 - 1 victory over the West Indies to regain the Wisden Trophy after the West Indies had slaughtered them in the first of three test matches played between the two teams in England. Flashback! In a recent article in the press I congratulated the West Indies on their magnificent victory in the first test. However, I posited that one swallow does not mean that it is summer. I explained that England would prefer to lose a battleship than to lose a test match and that they will come back at us with blood in their eyes. They drew blood in the second and third test matches and regained the trophy which will be held for posterity in the museum at Lords. It is apposite to note that on Tuesday, July 28, 2020 the birth anniversary of the greatest cricketer of all times, our own, Sir Garfield St Aubrun Sobers, the West Indies meekly surrendered the Wisden Trophy to England.
In my letter alluded to above, I also mentioned diverse areas that the West Indies must address, including dropped catches, tactical blunders by the skipper himself, poor running between the wickets, bad television reviews, batsmen getting starts and not moving on to big scores. Coach Phil Simmons subsequently called on his batters to convert the fifties into big hundreds. They did not positively respond to the coach. Eight batsmen got 50-plus but did not carry on to score centuries. The deficiencies of the team manifested themselves during the series. Hence, the performance of the team was prosaic.
It was like the elephant going into labour and giving birth to a mouse. The Englishmen exploited the weakness of our batters. To use the words of Sir. Vivian Richards, “The lights were on but no body went to the party.” Several years ago Michael Holding opined that there is no strength on the bench. That opinion is still very valid today.
At the commencement of the tour of England, world record holder, Brian Charles Lara, the Prince of Port of Spain who was at onetime the batting King of the Cricketing World and who was covering the series for the BBC urged the players to protect their wickets and to win the matches within four days. Unfortunately, those words fell on deaf ears as of the 56 West Indian wickets that felled during the series, 14 were out LBW and 9 departed bowled. This accounted for an alarming 41% of the dismissals of all the batsmen. During the first test there were 4 LBWs and 4 bowled. The LBWs and batsmen bowled peaked during the second test as 8 were out LBW and 4 bowled. There was a bit of flattening of the curve as 7 batsmen perished LBW and 1 bowled during the last test match. The batsmen stayed iron-footed in the crease and had their innings abbreviated. Perhaps, the players did not realise that West Indian Wickets Matter and that the wickets must be protected all the time and at all cost.
Lara had a vision that the batsmen cannot survive batting on the fifth day of a test match. In the final day of the final test match, they meekly surrendered long before the close of play - one hour before tea. They appeared to be in a rush to get back to the comfort of their warm bio secure environment, instead of fighting it out on the field despite the harsh English weather conditions and the hostility of Broad, Woakes and Archer with Stokes lurking in the background. Too many batsmen got out playing at balls wide of the off stump, leg stump and elsewhere that could have been easily left alone. They gave the impression that they were playing for an impossible win when in reality they should have been batting to draw the match and retain the trophy. Their strategy should have been to bat, and bat, and bat and bat to the close of play. Imagine Chase got run out as if chasing a quick single to earn an early victory. The late batting icon, the first and only batsman to have scored five Test centuries in consecutive innings, Sir. Everton DeCourcy Weekes would have instructed the team to “bat till the cows come home.”
Interestingly, just after West Indies mildly surrendered the rain came.
Here is how West Indies captain Jason Holder defined the mood of his players, “It’s been challenging, It’s been really challenging. Mentally some of the guys are a bit worn out. It could be this way for a little while and we have got to find ways to make it work.”
In another article I will attempt to analyse the performances of the batsmen, bowlers, all-rounders, wicketkeeper, captain and the selection policy. Anyway, it is now close of play for me, bad light or not.
Yours faithfully,
Clinton Conway
Assistant Commissioner of Police
(Retired)