The Good, The Bad and The Ugly!
Avid lovers of classic movies will remember the 1966 spaghetti Western, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. The film starred Clint Eastwood (Blondie) as the Good, Lee Van Cleef (Evil Eyes) as the Bad, and Eli Wallach (Tuco, The Rat) as the Ugly. For us, our following annual review of West Indies cricket’s 2021 is very much a reflection of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.
Given all that has occurred during the past twelve months, and faced as we always are with the space constraints of having to limit the length of our articles to just one page, the forthcoming review can and will be at best top-line and somewhat cursory. We, therefore, trust that our Readers will, however, fully understand and appreciate the governing effect of such limitations.
As a starter for some of what can now be classified as “The Good,” there was of course the highly impressive and muchimproved progress made by our West Indies Women’s cricketers under the guidance of Head Coach Courtney Walsh. The team produced positive results in the majority of its matches played. There were also some brilliant individual performances from the likes of Deandra Dottin, Hayley Matthews, and Skipper Stephanie Taylor among others.
Dottin had a most welcome return to form, Taylor impressively went past the 5000 career runs mark and Matthews’ allround brilliance was sufficient to earn her the ICC’s nomination as its November 2021Women’s Cricketer of the month. Wholly encouraging developments to say the very least.
West Indies Junior Men’s “Rising Stars” cricketers also had a very encouraging tour of England in preparation for their participation in the forthcoming Caribbean hosted ICC U19 World Cup. Teddy Bishop, Matthew Nandu, and Isaiah Thorne will be among those in the West Indies Rising Stars squad whose performances will be very closely followed during the forthcoming World Cup.
On the Men’s senior front there were also some of that which can be unearthed for classification as The Good. Kraigg Brathwaite’s recapture of his run-scoring consistency, as the West Indies opening batsman and captain, would now be at the very top of that list.
Brathwaite amassed 675 runs during the 2021 calendar year. His ten innings batted included one century, three halfcenturies,
as well as a 47.
Easily the most encouraging development for West Indies during 2021 though, certainly in terms of its Test cricket, was the emergence of 20-year-old Jayden Seales as part of the West Indies seam attack. Since making his Test debut on June 10 against South Africa, Seales has already captured 16 wickets in just the four Tests he’s played to date. In the process, he’s also demonstrated himself as being in satisfactory possession of the pace and accuracy that have been the hallmarks of all eventually great fast bowlers. Seales’ emergence as a worthy new-ball partner for the experienced Kemar Roach has, therefore, been a most welcome development for West Indies cricket.
So too in terms of the West Indies’ white-ball, limited overs, cricket have been the performances by the leg spinner Akeal Hosein during both the most recent T20 Series against Pakistan, as well as the preceding 2021 World Cup. The all-round hard-hitting batting and pacy bowling capabilities demonstrated by both Romario Shepherd and Odean Smith, during the Pakistan hosted T20 Series, were also highly encouraging, as was Brandon King’s return to form at the top of the West Indies batting order.
When coupled with Nicholas Pooran’s demonstrated leadership qualities as the West Indies Pakistan T20 Series captain, as well as his own batting form, such developments are suggestive of much improved performances by the West Indies white-ball teams in 2022 than those
that were experienced during 2021. Indeed, the overall depressingly poor performances by West Indies teams across all three formats in 2021 must now be at the very top of the lengthy list of that which can be described and defined as “The Bad!”
During 2021, West Indies played a total of 44 matches, comprised of 10 Tests, 9 ODIs, and 25 T20Is. Their respective playing records for each format were Won 3, Lost 5, Drawn 2 for Tests; Won 4, Lost 5 for ODIs, and Won 9, Lost 13 for T20Is. The resulting win/loss ratio is a damning 13/44 or 29.5%.
Such statistics can now only be interpreted as inescapable evidence of the decline in performance standards by both the West Indies players themselves, as well as those of the Phil Simmons-led coaching staff under whose guidance they have been playing.
As opposed to any noticeable signs of improvement, far too many West Indies players have during the past year, either regressed or at best stagnated in terms of their further development. An actuality that brings to the fore the question as to the competencies of Simmons and his assistants, particularly the batting and bowling coaches, Monty Desai and Roddy Estwick.
The abysmally low win/loss ratios, regressing and/or stagnating player development and highly questionable coaching staff competencies can now all be listed as being foremost among all that was The Bad, for West Indies cricket in 2021.
Cricket West Indies having sent its players to participate in not one but two successive globally televised Series, clad in shirts with the former team sponsor’s logo covered over with masking tape must also be added to that list.
In terms of what can now be classified as the Ugly, at the very top of the list would be the 2021 World Cup squad selection fiasco, as well as the subsequent non-renewal of the contracts of Chairman Roger Harper and Miles Bascome as members of the Panel that was responsible for its unfolding. The actual wholly disappointing performances by the West Indies team at the World Cup would also be very high on the list of “The Ugly!” So too would be the ongoing controversies surrounding the suitability of current West Indies fitness standards, which have resulted in highly disturbing and unpleasant images of noticeably overweight and unfit players gracing international cricket fields as part of our playing teams.
As was previously indicated, the foregoing review of West Indies cricket’s 2021 year was, as a result of the associated space constraints, top-line, and cursory. As limited as it may have been it should, however, now serve as an indication that there was far too much that was readily inclusive of The Bad and The Ugly as opposed to The Good. In the aforementioned spaghetti Western movie, Clint Eastwood’s The Good character does of course ultimately emerge triumphant over both Lee Van Cleef as The Bad and Eli Wallach The Ugly. We can but hope that for West Indies cricket the forthcoming 2022 New Year will produce a much similar outcome.
From both of us to all of you our readers, here’s wishing you a Very Happy, Most Prosperous and Covid Safe New Year!
About The Writers:
Guyana-born, Toronto-based, Tony McWatt is the Publisher of both the WI Wickets and Wickets monthly online cricket magazines that are respectively targeted towards Caribbean and Canadian readers. He is also the only son of the former Guyana and West Indies wicket-keeper batsman the late Clifford “Baby Boy” McWatt.
Guyana-born Reds (Perreira) has served as a world-recognized West Indies Cricket Commentator for well over fifty years. Reds made his broadcasting debut during the 1971 West Indies-India Test Series, and has commentated on hundreds of matches since then!