5 eccentric reasons why West Indies continue to play appalling cricket

Marlon Samuels castled

An Overview

It astonishes me when people get bewildered by what West Indies continue to dish out in the on-going series against India, because West Indian brand of cricket has been that way for well over a decade now.

Chanderpaul has been a regular part of the Test setup and if you review some of the West Indian batting charts in the last decade, Chanderpaul would be the only one who might stand out in terms of making big scores and the rest of the batting line-up would have produced cameos or wouldn’t even have got starts at all.

And when it comes to their bowling, I am unable to remember any one, who has been a consistent part of their one-day and Test sides over the last 5 years. Fidel Edwards has been in and out of the side, Jerome Taylor has gone unnoticed, Kemar Roach has been rather erratic and you can continue counting such stories, which are part of the reason why West Indies continue to look sloppy.

But here, we shall have a look at 5 eccentric reasons why West Indies continue to play appalling cricket.

“Over the top” admiration for their opponents

Respecting your opponents and recognizing their performances is a whole lot different story but what happens with the current West Indian side is that, they admire their opponents to the extent that they forget their own game and the purpose of competing in an international series. And this trend is rather surprising from what you usually associate with the West Indian sides of yester years, who played their cricket hard and hardly gave anything away when it came to the mental side of the game.

I don’t know how many of you remember James Anderson going on to quote that, “we have to make sure we do not treat Tendulkar with too much respect in the middle, I do know that people have said they love watching him bat and maybe too much of that kind of admiration could dull your competitive edge”, in 2012. That’s the brutal truth and you got to respect Anderson there for what he said, because in a cricket ground, you are playing to win as well.

The way the Kieran Powells, Darren Bravos and a couple more of them conducted themselves when they fielded at Short-leg and other bat-pad positions during the recently concluded Tendulkar’s farewell Test series, you got the feeling that they were literally playing it into the hands of an imperious Indian side in their own backyard. You ideally would want to have a jibe, a banter and try getting under a team’s skin but it was never on and what happened during the Kochi ODI was a carbon copy of the above-mentioned scenario as well.

And if you were meticulous to the way West Indians have fielded right throughout the Test series and in the Kochi ODI, it’s due to their “over the top” admiration for their opponents that they tend to doze off on the field from time to time.

Lack of seriousness inside the ground

West Indian sides have always been known for their compassionate approach to playing the game, being warm at heart and adding another dimension to enjoying their cricket. But, way too much of gangnam style dancing and shaking your hips to the classic calypso music might get you the public’s attention, but it doesn’t win you cricket matches and more so, wouldn’t let you compete as well.

Yes, I might sound too cautious and intense but I truly believe, this is something that the Caribbean outfit need to tighten upon.

Below par level of players for international standard

You have a look at Veerasamy Permaul, going about his trade and there is very little about his bowling that draws your attention. I don’t know whether he can be a long-serving servant of West Indian cricket, but I don’t think he has the qualities of an international spin bowler, who’ll bamboozle top quality players of spin bowling like Michael Clarke, Mahela Jayawardene, Virat Kohli and Jacques Kallis.

Sheldon Cottrell is another one of those bowlers, who has no promise and hasn’t really come through the ranks that you expect from players at the international level.

Tino Best is yet another bowler, who has raw pace and runs in every ball but if you test his quality, he isn’t up there as well.

Chaotic cricket governing body (WICB)

No matter how your international team fares, the hierarchy and the game’s governing body has to be managed in the right manner. But I feel, in West Indies’ case, the board also should take a fair bit of responsibility for the country’s continued dismal performances at the international level.

The way they treated Gayle during 2011 and early 2012 was abominable to say the least. You can’t afford to treat one of your country’s good cricketers like that. The continued problems with players’ salary has aggravated the whole thing to another level as well.

And every time I see a disillusioned West Indian cricketer taking on to a cricket ground, this is the factor that strikes me time and time again.

Lack of potential captains leading the side

Yes. I am talking about Darren Sammy and the ODI captain, Dwayne Bravo. Albeit Dwayne Bravo has certain pedigree to call himself a genuine all-rounder, Darren Sammy is a floater, who can never be a certainty in any West Indian side just because of the repertoire he possesses and the utility he brings to the team. So as a captain, if you are unsure of your own place in the side, how do you instill confidence within your troops? This is a massive reason as to why West Indies continue to look paltry and you don’t see a positive change in the arisen either. Do you?

Pulling the curtains

So there you go my fabulous readers, all the above aspects put together have compounded to the way West Indies play their international cricket these days. But you don’t see any positive changes coming as yet, simply because of the quality in and around the 11 that takes the field each game. I feel and pass on my commiserations to the likes of Brian Lara, Vivian Richards and such fabulous cricketers, who had a giggle about their opponents because of their prowess to intimidate them.