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BY BRYAN DAVIS
IT never ceases to amaze me what weak excuses I hear when the West Indies (WI) cricket team does badly.
There are excuses from head coach Phil Simmons and Cricket West Indies director of cricket Jimmy Adams – two gentlemen who should know better, after WI were whipped so crushingly by the visitors from South Africa (SA).
Simmons commented on what a setback his team had suffered. But, he goes on to say, he wouldn’t know how big a setback it is until they do their remedying and come up against Pakistan. Sounds to me as if he’s preparing to lose already when he meets the Pakistanis.
Learn from the South Africans, who were thoroughly professional in their approach, and it was noticeable how much they wanted to win.
Before what turned out to be the final day’s play, the Proteas’ all-rounder Wiaan Mulder who, in the first innings had removed the last three wickets of WI’s resistance for one run, reported thus, which is pertinent, “The biggest thing that I feel we are doing well as a team for the last year now is that we train incredibly hard and at an incredible high intensity level... Hard work pays off and without hard work you get lucky performances, and you don’t put in consistent performances, so I think that’s been the process and that’s been the biggest thing.”
There is so much truth in that statement and so simple to follow but losing sides never do the homework.
This brings me back to Simmons and his statement that I’ve found many coaches used before; when they lost. And that is, “I don’t think the high-quality preparation is happening enough in the territories, I think when the players come to us and we step up the intensity we have a few issues here and there. I think more needs to be done at the territories, but this is something that’s been said for a long time.”
It’s been said for a long time because it’s an excuse. And excuses are made only by losers.
Nothing was said when Bangladesh were beaten or even after the drawn series against Sri Lanka. Not at all, because WI did not lose.
[caption id="attachment_897755" align="alignnone" width="900"] Bryan Davis[/caption]
Then Adams says the pitches in the Caribbean need improving by making them hard and fast.
If so, then would we fail in Bangladesh on slow, turning pitches? And in England, on diverse wickets, with both seam and spin bowling relevant? And why SA fast bowlers could bowl us out for less than 200 and ours can’t do the same?
Excuses.
The HC must work with what he has, regardless of their form. He has to ensure that they perform and mustn’t throw his responsibility onto the backs of the territories.
There hasn’t been any domestic first-class cricket in the WI since March 2020. Indeed, players would be a bit short of competitive games at a level to sharpen them.
However, South Africa, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka would have shared a similar problem.
Adams mentions the quality of the bowlers from SA, and that is where the problem lies. There is a total lack of intense, tough, hard-working preparation given to the WI team, hence, they find themselves short in order to compete at Test level. Check the above quote by Mulder.
The biggest problem with the team, though, is the batting. It was extremely poor in the Best vs Best practice match leading up to the Test series. The players did not appear to approach the game as if they were in a Test.
When preparing for a Test match every ball faced must be with the concentration and responsibility of a Test match. There is no way it should be treated like a Sunday-afternoon club game or fete match, which is exactly what the batsmen were doing! The general atmosphere was that of a fun game for everyone to enjoy themselves and revel in a light-hearted frolic in the sun. That created inadequate preparation.
Observing the Test games closely, batsmen were being dismissed mainly through 1) Lack of concentration. 2) Taking their eyes off the ball. 3) Showing no responsibility.
Batsmen need to practise for at least an hour per day, three days a week. Constant, lengthy batting time in the nets improves discipline, concentration and technique, which equals the right attitude for batsmen at the wicket. Then the type of pitch in the match wouldn’t matter.
 
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