No excuses for Windies not to do basics well

SOME of the comparisons between this inexperienced West Indies side and the team who once ruled cricket have been totally unfair. The decline of their Test team didn’t begin last week at Edgbaston. It’s been going on for years. I could understand their coach Stuart Law coming out after the first Test and saying that he and the captain Jason Holder had asked the players to have a long look in the mirror. But what was then a bit odd was for Law to provide them with excuses — like losing the toss and the cold weather. But some of the players are entitled to say that Holder needs to look in the mirror himself. If he’s batting at No 8 but not taking many wickets, what exactly is his role in the side? As captain, you need to be either an excellent player or an excellent leader. At Edgbaston, Holder was

Needs to step up: Holder neither. West Indies must at least do the basics better and emerge with some kind of pride. During the first Test, those basics were badly lacking. It was bizarre, for instance, for Holder not to take the second new ball under lights. Then there was the players’ body language, moping around with their hands in their pockets. They also dived over the ball almost every time — a crime for a young side. And they fed Alastair Cook’s strengths — on his hips and pads — rather than trying to draw him forward outside off, which the whole world knows is the way to bowl to him. People should be able to forgive them for not being good enough. But what hurts their fans and the older generation of players is when the attitude appears to be wrong. That, more than anything, is what they need to sort out over the next few days at Headingley.