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West Indies tour of England 2017
« on: July 24, 2017, 08:46:42 AM »
http://newsday.co.tt/sport/0,246791.html


Davis queries WI team selections for England Test series
JOEL BAILEY Monday, July 24 2017

EX-TRINIDAD and Tobago and West Indies opening batsman Bryan Davis has queried the selection of the 15-member Windies team for their forthcoming three-Test series, away to England.

Among the players chosen by the selection panel, headed by Courtney Browne, were Barbadian-born Kyle Hope (who is an opening batsman for the TT Red Force) and Raymon Reifer (a left-handed all-rounder for the Guyana Jaguars).

Both Hope and Reifer are the only members of the 15-man team who are yet to play Test cricket, while Reifer has never featured at the international level.

In a recent interview, Davis commented, “These fellahs are very fortunate because they’re Bajans. There are nine Barbadians on the team. The last time you had nine Barbadians on a touring team like that was to England in 1966.

I remember it well.

“Now that seems to be starting again (under the new selection panel). I’m seeing more and more Barbadians, of very average ability, being forced into the team, and given second looks all the time. I’m seeing a lot of personal insularity in this thing.

“I am very critical of the selectors,” Davis added. “I don’t think the present selectors are really up to it. I don’t believe they can analyse the game of cricket.

I see no good reasons that they ever put forward for selecting their teams, and it looks more like who are their favourites.” Davis pointed out, “Reifer is a slow medium bowler. He’s an ordinary bowler.

“What about (Ronsford) Beaton? There was talk that he was in line for Test cricket. Why he didn’t get a look-in to go to England?” Earning a recall to the team was veteran fast bowler Kemar Roach.

Davis pointed out, “What is worrying is his injury-prone problem.

He’s a good bowler but it is said that he bowled well this year (in the Regional Four Day Championships).

I don’t have his figures.” He added, “I have nothing against him because he’s a good bowler and a good cricketer. I just worry about if he’s fit enough.” Another worry for Davis is the technical ability of the Windies players to cope with the swinging ball in England.

“They have very poor techniques and, to play good cricket and make big scores, in any type of cricket, you need (a) proper technique,” he stressed. “(In) England, the ball does a little bit more off the pitch. And if you don’t have the right technique, and you don’t move your feet and get in line with the ball, you’re in trouble. And we don’t have the proper technique.

“I’ve never seen the work going (into) the cricketers to improve their techniques. I don’t know if (WI coach) Stuart Law is going to improve on that sort of practice to develop that, to improve their skills, to play in England. But as far as I see it, I don’t think those batsmen that we have can cope at all. I don t think so.”
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Re: West Indies tour of England 2017
« Reply #1 on: August 01, 2017, 11:14:28 PM »
Holder: Preperation games critical to success

https://www.stabroeknews.com/2017/sports/08/01/preparation-games-critical-to-tour-success-says-holder/


LONDON, CMC – West Indies captain Jason Holder has urged his inexperienced side to make the most of the three tour games in the build-up to the opening Test of the three-match series against England later next month.
The tourists face Essex in a three-day contest starting today and will follow up with matches against Kent from August 6-8 in Canterbury and against Derbyshire from August 11-13.
The opening Test will be a day/night affair beginning August 17 at Edgbaston.

New boy Kyle Hope arrives at Lord’s for West Indies’ first training session since arriving in London. (Photo courtesy CWI Media)
“I think it is extremely good that we have three games leading into the first Test match, all of them being three-day games and one being a day-nighter, so that’s more than enough preparation time to go into the first Test and into the Test series,” the all-rounder said.
“The guys need to use these games importantly and make sure we make use of them to the best of our ability and get what we need out of them. It’s important that batsmen spend some time at the crease, get accustomed to the conditions and the quicker we get acclimatised to the conditions, I think the better off we would be.
“We need to get comfortable and make sure that we give ourselves the best chance to perform.”
The series is expected to be a difficult one for West Indies, especially with the majority of the  squad making their maiden Test tour of England.
In fact, of the 15-man squad only opener Kieran Powell and pacers Kemar Roach and Shannon Gabriel have ever played a Test here.
Further, two players – Kyle Hope and Raymond Reifer – are uncapped while six others have played less than 15 Tests.
Holder, who has led the Windies in 15 of his 23 Tests, said critical to the success of the tour would be the squad’s ability to play as a unit and build on recent encouraging performances against Pakistan.
“The biggest thing is for us to gel as a side. We’ve preached family in the dressing room and we have planned a lot of activities to try and bring the group together,” he explained.
“I have been seeing some wonderful progress. The last two Test series we played against Pakistan have been a great success for us, although we didn’t get the perfect results in terms of the overall picture. “We saw many of the guys improve – they are a lot more assertive at the crease as batters and the bowlers being a lot more consistent in their lines and lengths.
“We can only ask the guys to continue in that vein and once we do the small things well … we will get the end results we’re looking for.”
The Windies arrived here Saturday from the Caribbean and had their first training session at Lord’s on Sunday.
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Re: West Indies tour of England 2017
« Reply #2 on: August 01, 2017, 11:22:39 PM »
Chase, Blackwood, Braithwaite shine vs Essex

The West Indians were given a thorough examination by a patchwork Essex attack on the opening day of the tourists' two-month tour of England and Ireland.

Essex's youthful bowlers took their collective chance and there were a number of promising cameo performances during a sometimes frustrating day that ended with the West Indians on 309 for 8.

Opener Kraigg Brathwaite weighed anchor for three hours 40 minutes before he departed on 61 just before tea to a terrific delivery from Callum Taylor.

Medium-pacer Taylor was the pick of the Essex bunch with 2 for 33 from 10 overs, even though he did not enter the fray until the 48th over as the seventh of eight bowlers used. He added Roston Chase with a yorker that took out middle and leg stumps, but only after Chase had added 119 in 23 overs for the fifth wicket with Jermaine Blackwood, and scored 81 himself.

Debutant Sam Cook, 19, who has made first-class appearances for Loughborough MCCU, shone with the new-ball in the morning and was rewarded in his fourth over when he beat the left-handed Kieran Powell with one that nipped back and bowled him.

Before his first Essex wicket, Cook had caught the outside of Brathwaite's bat, the ball landing just short of Varun Chopra in the slips.

When Cook was rested after his initial six-over burst of nagging line, length and occasional movement, he had the impressive figures of 1 for 14. He finished the day with 1 for 49 from 20 overs.

The slightly more experienced Paul Walter dismissed both the Barbadian Hope brothers either side of lunch, both for 22. The elder sibling, the uncapped Kyle, got an inside edge and played on after a free-hitting 30-ball innings. Shai Hope went when he was late on a straight delivery and was also bowled.

All the while, Brathwaite was stonewalling and holding up an end. He needed 38 balls to reach double-figures before he broke loose briefly against Walter, cutting the bowler for four and flicking a second boundary in the over off his legs.

"Key is to play the ball as late as possible," Brathwaite said of his knock on the opening day. "The weather tends to change a lot, it is overcast and the ball swings even more. That's one of the keys. You need to have that mindset. That will help you get to big scores."

The shutters went up again during the afternoon and he had added just 11 runs from 43 balls before drinks. Refreshed, Brathwaite reached his half-century the next ball, his 135th, when he pushed Matt Dixon square on the offside for a three.

Brathwaite was reprieved on 53 when Nick Browne at second slip failed to hold on to an edge above his head off Aaron Beard. Chase was also fortunate when Taylor whipped in a delivery that both bowler and wicketkeeper thought had taken the edge, but the appeal fell on deaf ears.

Brathwaite's 155-ball marathon ended when he completely misread a delivery from Taylor, toppling forward as it thudded into his stumps.

Blackwood upped the tempo when he came in, and dented Cook's figures with two boundaries in an over, one straight, the other square on the onside. Chase lofted Aron Nijar over long leg for six, and Blackwood followed suit to bring up the pair's fifty partnership in just 10 overs.

Chase went to his fifty from 101 balls, followed soon after by Blackwood, who needed just 48 balls to reach the milestone. He then hit his eighth four one-bounce straight past Walter. The century stand came up in 19 overs.

Walter had Blackwood caught at mid-off from a no-ball on 58, however after Taylor had ended Chase's 138-ball innings, Blackwood departed having added just one run after his reprieve. Ryan ten Doeschate halted the run of five successive clean-bowleds by having him lbw.

Captain Jason Holder did not last long before Matt Dixon found the edge and Chopra dived to his left at first slip then Dan Lawrence caught and bowled Devendra Bishoo off the last ball of the day.

The venue saw fans turn up in large numbers on the day. "This is probably the biggest warm-up crowd I've seen," said Brathwaite. "The English love their cricket, it was good to see the big crowd. Good to see a few West Indian supporters too while batting on the field."

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Chase, Blackwood, Brathwaite shine as West Indies start tour
The West Indians were given a thorough examination by a patchwork Essex attack on the opening day of the tourists' two-month tour of England and Ireland
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Offline Michael-j

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Re: West Indies tour of England 2017
« Reply #3 on: August 02, 2017, 06:57:22 AM »
Great to see Blackwood back in the test squad after being overlooked in the past couple series. Good knocks by  Chase and Brathwaite too, but half centuries are not enough at this level. If we are to be competitive against England these fellas need to convert these 50s in to big hundreds! I don't expect us to win any of the tests against a superior England team, but good competitive cricket is what I'm looking forward to.

While I'm at it; what the heck is up with the new Cricinfo site?!? ???  That new layout gives me a real headache!  :cursing:

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Re: West Indies tour of England 2017
« Reply #4 on: August 02, 2017, 10:29:39 PM »
Michael-J,

I right there with you re the new cricinfo site. Overfrigging disturbing.

Re. the performance of the players of course you are right. But fellas need time to get used to the swing conditions in England. Long time, they would've given us a month to do so before the Test started.

These days, nobody wasting that kind of time with the WI.

VB
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Re: West Indies tour of England 2017
« Reply #5 on: August 17, 2017, 04:56:27 PM »
Garner, Count out WI at your peril


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2017/08/14/joel-garner-warns-england-not-write-west-indies-day-night-conditions/

 Jonathan Liew
14 AUGUST 2017 • 6:28PM
Joel Garner has warned England that they underestimate the tourists at their peril. The legendary Bajan fast bowler, and now the West Indies team manager, believes that the first ever day-night Test in England will be won by whichever team can adapt best to the pink ball and the unfamiliar conditions.

The West Indies’ recent record in this country is abysmal. You have to go back to 1988 for their last series win in England, and 2000 for the last time they even won a Test. With key players such as Chris Gayle, Marlon Samuels, Darren Bravo and Sunil Narine absent due to a board dispute and the Caribbean Premier League, few are offering them much hope this time.

But crucially, they have played a day-night Test before - a narrow defeat to Pakistan in Dubai last October. And with a dangerous pace attack led by Kemar Roach and Shannon Gabriel, and a new coach in Stuart Law restoring fitness and discipline, Garner believes this series will be a good deal more competitive than many people think.
 
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“Not many people are giving us a lot of hope,” said Garner, who only ever lost one Test series in 10 years as a player. “I think the fellas have got talent. It’s who makes the greatest adjustment in the day-night game. Games between England and the West Indies are competitive. I wouldn’t completely write them off.

"It's going to be some interesting times. I think people are writing the West Indies off too early, and it could be at their own peril. Cricket is played in the middle at the end of the day and it’s who makes the fastest adjustment.”

 West Indies
Shannon Gabriel is one of three West Indies players to have played a Test in England CREDIT: AFP
Nevertheless, Garner admitted that the absence of at least a dozen players who would easily have made the current squad was a significant loss. “It is what it is,” he said. “The players have made a decision that they want to play a shorter version of the game. They will have to make their mind up about whether they want to come back and play the longer version.

“We will welcome them back because they are our better players, but at the present moment we are here to play cricket. We’ve got to work with what we’ve got.”

And so this is a young, inexperienced West Indies side, only three of whom - Roach, Gabriel and Kieran Powell - have played Test cricket in England before. But Garner said that Law, who replaced Phil Simmons as coach in January, had instilled new standards of professionalism in a squad that had become a touch lazy over the years.

“Some of our players have become accustomed to the CPL way of doing things,” Garner said. “Players are being encouraged to train harder and get fitter. We’ve always had players with ability, players with style and flair, but the lack of preparation at the top could have been part of the problem.”

 Joel Garner
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Re: West Indies tour of England 2017
« Reply #6 on: August 17, 2017, 05:21:53 PM »
Roberts, not sure what WI's strengths are


Former WI fastbowler, Andy Roberts has questioned the fitness of the current pace attack on the eve of the first Test against England at Edgbaston.

Roberts was speaking in Birmingham at Wicketz, a children's clinic hosted by the Lord's Taverners, ahead of the day-night Test alongside fellow West Indies greats Viv Richards, Curtly Ambrose and Richie Richardson. While all four former players acknowledged there were significant weaknesses in the side, Roberts handed out the harshest assessment of bowlers.

"To be honest I don't know what is the strength of West Indies cricket today because we don't bat too well and at times it depends on the fitness of the fast bowlers," Roberts told ESPNcricinfo. "It seems as though some of them are prone to breaking down.

"I'm hoping that they are all at full strength and that they'll all be able to last the full five days. If they do they may have a chance but you see it's very difficult if you do go in with four bowlers and you have problems with one because the overall team is not as strong as I would like to see."

Roberts was critical of the amount of time players spend in the gym and suggested they should spend more time in the nets. But he singled out 20-year-old Alzarri Joseph as the bowler who could thrive in English conditions.

"He's young, I think he's probably the fittest of the lot in terms of not breaking down and he also swings the ball a bit which is not common," Roberts said. "Jason Holder, Kemar Roach and Shannon Gabriel are more seamers. They seem to hit the deck a lot harder and try to get legcutters and offcutters whereas Alzarri Joseph, especially early in the innings, will try to swing the ball and that's very important here in England. So I won't be surprised early on, if he takes the new ball, if he takes one or two early wickets."

In contrast, former West Indies bowling coach Ambrose felt the current crop of bowlers were holding their own in Tests, but he called on the batsmen to push harder for competitive - and defendable - totals.

"I'm not saying they don't have batsmen who can score runs, they do,"

Ambrose said. "But you can't keep scoring 180, 200, 220 in Test cricket and expect to win too many games."

One of the batsman who has impressed Richardson, the former team manager, is Shai Hope. Although Hope averages just 19.57 in ten Tests to date, Richardson believes his temperament marks him out as a batsman who can develop into a mature player.

"His attitude towards batting, towards the game, he's always willing to learn," Richardson said. "He listens and you can see he would make changes to his game.

"If he got out a particular way he would go into the nets and try to work on his weaknesses and I like that about him. He's always willing to learn and always asking questions, he's got a desire to work hard and to achieve great things."

Richards, perhaps typically, called on the West Indies batsmen to show no fear and, while acknowledging England are heavy favourites going into the series, believed the pink ball could be something of a leveler in the opening match.

"England is one of the best places for you to play the game itself and one's got to look at it that way," Richards said. "All the players from the West Indies who have toured this part of the world would have gone back from England being a much better player. I'm hoping the guys do understand that, the batters themselves understand that.

"There are no demons playing in this country. If you can play and you back yourself enough, you're going to have success and that's what it's all about. Knowing your requirements, knowing your limits, the things you can get done and the things that you cannot get done.

"Don't worry about them talking about the seam and the swing an all that sort of stuff, it can be countered. If you're good enough."
« Last Edit: August 17, 2017, 05:28:07 PM by vb »
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Re: West Indies tour of England 2017
« Reply #7 on: August 22, 2017, 11:27:59 AM »
West Indies' legacy left in the hands of schoolboys

http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/20389954/west-indies-legacy-left-hands-schoolboys

Failing to run hard. Poking at wide ones. Not moving one's feet. Hands in pockets as the ball is bowled. Not backing up. Not enough singles. Fielders too deep. Running down the middle of the wicket. No control over line. Playing across the line when it's swinging. No diving to stop boundaries. Balls going through legs. Boundary balls served to order. Lifeless fielding. New ball not taken. Rash shots. Impatient bowling. Terrible techniques. Wasting the new ball.

If you had a list like this as a coach of a school team you'd be angry. But this is not even a complete list of the mistakes the West Indies made in the first Investec Test.

***

Alastair Cook brought up his fifty with a misfield to cover. He brought up his hundred when the ball was hit straight to a point fielder who was either set too deep, or simply asleep. His 150 came from an overpitched ball on the pads. His 200 was guided away to the vacant third man ... well not vacant in a cricket sense; there was a fielder there, Kyle Hope, he just didn't stop the ball.

At the start of day two, West Indies committed three fielding errors before drinks that would have embarrassed a stressed-out mollusc. For most of the first innings they looked about as interested in stopping runs as they were in penning love letters to donkeys. They wandered around the field like bored children, hands in pockets, no dives.

At one point there was a misfield, and the ball wriggled out behind the fielder. And no one chased it. Not the player who had missed it. Not the other players around it. For a couple of seconds, a ball that had been delivered in a Test match was trickling out towards long on, and not one West Indian fielder was chasing it.

***

The England players average 51 Tests each, the West Indies 17. There is one England player, Toby Roland-Jones, who has played fewer than 100 first-class matches, and even he has played 93. There is one West Indies player who has played over 100 - Kraigg Brathwaite with 110.

Alastair Cook, Stuart Broad, James Anderson and Moeen Ali have played 821 first-class matches between them; the entire West Indies team have amassed 675.

It's always been the case that there isn't enough first-class cricket played in the Caribbean. But this situation is even worse than it seems, because this team isn't even particularly young.

Kyle Hope has played only 34 matches, and while that makes him sound young, he isn't, he's 28. Mark Stoneman, two years older than Hope, has played 112 more first-class matches and scored 17 more hundreds. Hope was picked to bat at No. 3, yet he had just one first-class hundred coming into this series. Not the ideal hinterland for surviving English conditions and England's two leading wicket-takers of all time.

There are only two players in this team under the age of 24; this isn't a bunch of kids, this is a bunch of mid-20s cricketers who have neither experience nor decent records.


Little and large: Jermaine Blackwood has his bat inspected by Jason Holder Getty Images
The bowlers were supposed to be the strength of this team. Sure, they lost Shannon Gabriel to fitness (and rhythm) concerns. But they still had a five-man attack apparently good enough that they could leave out Devendra Bishoo.

And Kemar Roach aside, none of the bowlers did the job that they were supposed to do. Alzarri Joseph wasn't quick, and he completely wasted the new ball on both occasions he was given it. Miguel Cummins was expected to come on as first change and keep the pressure up. He bowled horrendously to Joe Root at the start of his innings, and their good start was ended right there. Jason Holder's role is to clog up an end, not clog up the opportunity to take a new pink ball under lights. And Roston Chase was supposed to give the seamers some extended breaks and work for the bowler at the other end - most of the time he seemed to struggle to land the ball within a metre of where he intended.

No one was entirely horrendous, all of them had moments when they got it right, but aside from Kemar Roach, not one of them looked like they were of Test quality. And they produced a staggering amount of boundaries.

Alastair Cook hit three in one over. Enough said.

***

A West Indian batsman has made a hundred in a game that featured James Anderson and the pink ball this summer. His name is Shivnarine Chanderpaul. And this season for Lancashire he is averaging 67. At 43, he might still be the best West Indian Test batsman in the world.

The second-best batsman may well be Darren Bravo; he is also not playing. At 28, with a Test average of 40, an overseas double-century, he should be at the peak of his powers, and instead, he was in litigation with CWI after tweeting that the board president Dave Cameron was a "big idiot". He did apologise to resolve things with the board but the Test squad for England had already been picked by then.

Both of these players have played a part in their own downfall, but when you are taking on Anderson and the ball is swinging around like an alien super missile, you want to call upon the guy who averages over 50 away from home and the guy who was your best player for the best part of 20 years.

But it isn't just two players that West Indies are missing, it's almost an entire team. Chris Jordan and Jofra Archer both play in county cricket but were born and raised in Barbados. Jordan has already played for England; Archer will soon enough. Both could fit into this West Indies side as it stands. Jordan could even be its captain. Archer's first-class bowling average is 23; his batting average is 30.

And, for all the fears of a talent drain inspired by Patrick Ewing's basketball career, West Indies continue to world-boss T20 cricket. Kieron Pollard is 30, he averages 37 in first-class cricket (more than most in this current team). Contrary to any reputation as a limited-overs slugger, he is a very smart cricketer, and can wobble a few overs if needed. Then there is Andre Russell, on a drugs-code violation maybe, but he can bowl 90 miles an hour, and can change a game in a session with the bat. He averages 20 with the ball in first-class cricket, took two five-wicket hauls against India A in consecutive games, and hasn't played a first-class match since February 2014.

And then there's Lendl Simmons, Dwayne Bravo, Sunil Narine, Darren Sammy, and Jerome Taylor, if you so please. They could, in theory, also call upon Daniel Bell-Drummond and Keith Barker, two other county players who would qualify for West Indies. Oh, and Chris Gayle, a former captain with a couple of Test triple-centuries to his name.


England's Chris Jordan was born in Barbados Getty Images
A team of Gayle, Bell-Drummond, Bravo, Chanderpaul, Simmons (he kept once), Pollard, Jordan, Russell, Archer, Narine, and Taylor would beat this current team. And it could be coached by Phil Simmons, who turned Ireland into a Test team, and helped West Indies win a World T20. Then he was sacked for suggesting that some of the players in this list should actually be selected.

This is a fantasy team, and could in no way exist in the real world for many reasons. The most important factor is the financial lure: whether that is of playing for England, of playing in England, or of playing for franchises whose salaries completely dwarf that which the West Indies administrators are able to pay their players. In some cases, the political problems have been caused by a poor CWI board, who have created extra tensions by acting like big idiots for much of the last few years. And to some extent that is changing under the new CEO, Johnny Grave, and Director of Cricket, Jimmy Adams, but the money problem still endures.

Since Learie Constantine played for West Indies as a means of getting a gig in English league cricket, West Indies players have always looked to leave if they wanted to be paid appropriately for their cricket. Garfield Sobers had to be convinced by Bradman and Benaud to play for West Indies over playing league cricket. County cricket after World War Two often had West Indies players in abundance, and they had their own team in Kerry Packer's World Series too.

So this problem isn't new, and without a global Test cricket structure in which the players are paid from a fixed pool fed by shared TV rights, there is no real way to stop the drain. The best players will continue to go where they have the brightest and most secure future, and West Indies cricket will continue to send out A teams for marquee Test series.

***

West Indies fought through their first session of batting in this Test match. The ball was moving around, they lost their most dependable player, Kraigg Brathwaite, early, but they didn't give up. And when the rain came they were a respectable 44 for 1.

The next day, however, all that fight vanished. They couldn't make a run, they couldn't get off strike, and they couldn't keep a batsman in. Five balls after losing Kyle Hope to a good ball, Kieran Powell tried to take a single.

The last time Powell came to England, in 2012, he averaged 14.2 and never passed 33. This time, he was pushing the ball to mid-on and taking a single, but he never got up to top speed, he never dived, and he never made it to the other end. This meant that they lost two early wickets and managed the rare feat of having two players out in the middle who hadn't faced a single ball. Not surprisingly one of them went early too, so they lost 3 for 2 in 24 balls.

Later Shai Hope, who is probably the most talented batsmen in this side, drove loosely on the up while the ball was still moving and was bowled. Jason Holder tried to be aggressive against Moeen Ali, played and missed for three balls straight, then finally got the edge he'd been looking for.

Jermaine Blackwood was the only batsman who looked like he could make runs, or stay out there. In the end, he made more runs in one innings than any of his team-mates managed in two. They ended up 75 runs short of Alastair Cook.

***

There is an unspoken law that forbids you from talking about the current state of West Indies cricket without talking about the glory days, Let's call it Clive's Law. Every bad moment of West Indian play must be immediately compared to a great player, moment or feeling from the past. Look how bad these bowlers are, remember the four fast men of death. That was a terrible way to play the short ball, remember when they used to hook like Gods. They all look like timid schoolkids, remember when they owned every blade of turf.

When the current West Indies team takes the field, they aren't just playing the opposition; they are playing the ghosts of the greatest cricket dynasty that ever lived.

Every time they land in England they are bombarded with articles about how great the team once was. The former West Indians are in the press, being asked what they think of a bloke with a first-class average of 33. The loudest sound in current West Indies cricket is the sigh people emit when they talk about the old days.


They keep on coming: Shivnarine Chanderpaul notched another century Getty Images
England don't enforce the follow-on often, but even they couldn't see any need to continue this match a moment longer. West Indies were entirely defeated, they could have batted in four innings and there would only have been an outside chance of England batting again.

There was no fight in the second innings; they were a boxer standing unconscious being propped up by the ropes. Brathwaite nudged for a little while; no one else went past 24. The footwork was horrendous. They lost a wicket every 16 minutes and 15 seconds. When Stuart Broad hit the pads of Roston Chase, he didn't even look back at the umpire, he didn't appeal, or even celebrappeal. It was quite clear that, when an English bowler delivered a ball, a West Indian batsman would be soon be out.

***

At nine wickets down in the first innings, Miguel Cummins came out to bat. Blackwood had just made an error in allowing Joseph the strike early in an over which lead to his wicket, so he was now trying to control the strike, and he hit a ball early in the over to deep point and didn't run.

To make sure there was no confusion, he came down the wicket and chatted to Cummins explaining the whole plan. Cummins listened and nodded. Blackwood went back to his stance and guided a beautiful boundary to third man, then clipped another ball into the leg side and took two. Off the fifth ball, with the field up, he inside-edged and failed to get his single. So, off the last ball, it was clear that he had to get to the other end.

So Cummins backed up, and started sprinting from the moment the ball was released, and stole the single that gave Blackwood the strike and kept him on course for his hundred.

No, sorry, that's not what happened. Cummins didn't back up. Or even react to the chance of a run, and he ended up well short.

It wasn't the biggest error of the day. It was just another mistake for the Schoolboy XI.

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Offline Deeks

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Re: West Indies tour of England 2017
« Reply #8 on: August 25, 2017, 07:08:51 PM »
WI did much better.Dropped crucial catches, but out England for 258. Let's see their batting now.

 

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