 |
Paying
the Price for Mediocrity |
Caribbean in the last 25 years. With a background which included going AWOL before the 1996 and 1999 World Cups, his catastrophic missed run out of Mark Waugh during the Sydney Test match in the 1996-97 tour, and countless opportunities of getting dismissed when seemingly well-set, the Board selected a leader which reflected their bizarre state of mind.
Their incompetence was evident throughout, with the selection of Brian Lara despite his blatant lack of match fitness, conceding to the wishes of the sponsors by devaluing the pre-season camp to allow 11 players to play in the Busta Cup final, which ended in a tame DRAW, refusing to admit that Ramnaresh Sarwan was left out of the fifth Test due to injury instead of poor form and, (this qualifies as the worst ever), selecting Leon Garrick two days before that said clash, allowing him only an hour practice on the
first morning, and subjecting him to a humiliating first-ball duck, moments after admitting that he will not feature in that match.
Even though he was warmly treated by the crowds, Hooper did what Lara, Courtney Walsh and Jimmy Adams were unable to do, lose a home Test series. The West Indies state of mind was highlighted during the final moments of the Barbados Test match, when Mervyn Dillon and Dinanath Ramnarine took it upon themselves to stymie the flow of the game with time-wasting tactics (both receiving monotonous treatments for injuries).
With both reporting fit for the following encounter in Antigua, Hooper took it upon himself to bowl first after winning the toss, with only three frontline bowlers and an untested left-arm spinner, on a pitch expected to favour the slow stuff at the latter stages.
Using an infantile defence that his batsmen failed the test (he included), the West Indies were also on the back foot since ball one, and the lunacy was compounded with Dillon's right-thumb injury, and the fact that he was kept on the field for the duration of the second innings.
Those backward decisions, coupled with the refusal to give Chris Gayle, Wavell Hinds and Marlon Samuels any meaningful use with the ball, meant that the hosts were simply making one step forward, two step backwards throughout.
On the other side of the coin, Lance Klusener overcame a horrendous tour with the bat to take critical wickets, Neil McKenzie's form against the spinners improved after the Trinidad encounter, Shaun Pollock, Nicky Boje and Jacques Kallis had vital roles in the three facets of the game, while Pollock's boldness as captain was consistently prevalent, notoriously in the victory quests in Trinidad, where he did not utilise the left-arm spin of Boje, and in Antigua, where fast bowler Makhaya Ntini was kept strictly as an outfielder.
Kallis and Hinds were beneficiaries of laughable umpiring decisions, (which was substandard at best), but the West Indies did not help their cause, cracking meekly under the relentless pressure of the South Africans, for example during the Gary Kirsten-Kallis partnership in Guyana, Kallis-Daryl Cullinan and Herschelle Gibbs-Cullinan stands in Trinidad, Pollock-Allan Donald counter-attack in Barbados, Gibbs-McKenzie pairings in Antigua, Kallis' short-pitched assaults on Samuels and Sarwan, countless dropped catches (lots of which proved vital), and their inability to chase victory targets.
After an even first Test in Bourda, Guyana, the West Indies batsmen undid the hard work of their bowlers, plummeting from a healthy advantage to a last-day defeat. Overconfidence got the better of the regional strokemakers at the final stages in Barbados but South Africa were relentless in their pursuit of a series win, which they duly got in Antigua. But the hosts rewarded Courtney Walsh, in his final Test in front of his home crowd, with a convincing 133-run victory.
While the umpiring and quality of pitches were subject to scrutiny, there were some displays that stood out and other performances to examine. Ridley Jacobs emphasised his tremendous form against South Africa, as well as his never-say-die attitude with a crucial knocks in Barbados and Jamaica, and an unbeaten 93 in Trinidad. Not the most stylist of batsmen, his lower-order contributions were made with grit and determination, albeit to the embarrassment of the over ambitious top order.
Walsh will retreat to the background of the cricketing scene with the knowledge that the West Indies are lacking in quality pace bowlers. Nixon McLean and Cameron Cuffy did little, and the frustration was conspicuous with the selection of Walsh and Dillon as the lone quickies in Antigua, an island that has a tremendous reputation in producing exponents in pace. After Dillon's legitimate ailment placed him out of the reckoning in the second innings, the likeable 'Cuddy', who reached the 500-wicket plateau in style in Trinidad, responded with a high-class performance, despite Hooper's ultra-defensive field placings.
Ramnarine dispelled the notion that specialist spinners have no place on a West Indies Test team with a marvellous display with the ball. Stamping his authority with excellent fielding and dogged lower-order batting, Ramnarine, at age 25, is nowhere near the class Shane Warne was at that age. But given an extended run at last, he proved that his 41-wicket haul in the Busta Cup was no fluke.
Hooper was a controversial choice at the helm, but his batting was again entertaining, in Guyana and Trinidad, but mystifying in Antigua and Jamaica. Typical Hooper indeed!
Lots of expectations were placed on the young batsmen, but none of the five used could admit to making any useful strides forward. Gayle's penchant for the backfoot drive on the off-side was easily detected by the third Test, and his explanation that "it's the way that I got runs in the past, why should I change now?" is a pin-point reason for the swell-headedness that permeates within the team.
Sarwan's desire to fall for the bouncer trap was pitiful, so was Samuels', and Hinds, despite the fact that he isn't au fait with the umpires, hardly got going but Garrick revealed his true colours at the wrong time, engaging in a verbal clash with Donald and Pollock at critical junctures in the second innings at Sabina.
Following his 150 in the opener, Kirsten was completely out of form and focus, so was Klusener and Mark Boucher, while Cullinan faded away after an exhilarating start to the series.
Until he was forced to return home with injuries, Boje was a handy spinner, with vital spells during the Windies chases in Barbados and Antigua. Gibbs and McKenzie proved that they possess the temperament at the highest level, with the bat and in the outfield (Windies young crop take note!) and there were lion-hearted efforts of Donald, Pollock and Kallis.
This series was not as bad as the pundits predicted, especially when one takes a look at the West Indies' scorecards, but, once again, it emphasised the level of work needed to be done to get the West Indies back on to the road to respectability