Frustrating Windies are meandering into mediocrity
HE Caribbean island of Dominica hosted the third test between the West Indies and Australia this week. In the wall-to-wall cricket that covers the world nowadays, nothing in the test stood out — no over-arching theme or performance, no defining incident; nothing demonstrated beyond a shadow of doubt I need share my peerless insights on Twitter.
Still, there was something quietly captivating about it all. The cricket somehow washed its sunshine through these autumn nights and did so in a lazy, convivial way. I watched more than I should have. It was as though I was experiencing an elegy for summers past.
There were still trails of interest running through the test, some fine off-spin bowling by Shane Shillingford and Nathan Lyon, a debut test century by Aussie keeper Matthew Wade and some quick — though not particularly successful — bowling by the bling-bedecked Kemar Roach.
The West Indies are a frustrating side to watch because they are forever on the way to a possibly mythical somewhere else. Coaches are fond of saying it’s not a destination, it’s a process, and this certainly makes sense in the abstract. The problem is that the West Indies have become addicted to the process because they’ve never discovered a destination.
Their upper order looks as fragile as a digestive biscuit dunked one time too many in a mug of tea. Shiv Chanderpaul looks wrong batting at five, but he’s presumably there to be a link between the upper and lower order by providing the latter with some kind of protection.
Still, their top three (who will it be by the time they tour England next month?) are frail and vulnerable; Darren Bravo looks a conspicuously gifted player but needs solidity and experienced support around him. Their captain, Darren Sammy, is
Tbrave-hearted and smart. But is he a test allrounder?
For all of this, the West Indies glory in showing glimpses of their better self. This, you suspect, is only to disappoint us once again. In this respect, they ’ re rather like recovering alcoholics — a side you like a great deal but don’t quite trust, another bender just around the corner.
With some tweaking and confidence and an infusion of players from the IPL they will be better. They need some luck in England and an opening pair who can grind out a good start. After that, they might be in with a shout; then again, midway through the second test they might decide to hit the bottle.
The Australians are suffering from similar problems. Ed Cowan ’ s introduction to test cricket has been trying and for too long they’ve struggled with what might be called “the Phil Hughes dilemma”. To phrase it another way, I’m not sure that getting rid of Simon Katich when they did was that smart.
I don’t really know where Shane Watson should be batting. Is he best used at three? Perhaps it’s academic. When you’ve got Mike Hussey following Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke, you have the cricketing equivalent of three battleships. It’s a trinity to build around.
Yet this is not a completely convincing Australian side. Does this have something to do with known fallibility? Or perhaps that soon Hussey, Ponting and Ryan Harris will be put out to pasture.
For them, though, its a process you can believe in; for the Windies, it’s a process that intimates further disappointment.
The Aussie transition is all the more interesting because this week their board is grappling with the idea of dissolution, 14 board members from six states making way for a board of nine, three of them independents. Voting yourself out of a job has to be the ultimate in selfsacrifice. Will it make Aussie cricket stronger? Probably, because good governance ensures strong systems, the very thing CSA and the minister grappled with on Thursday.