Unless the West Indies team can somehow shake themselves out of the inexplicable lethargy that has typified their cricket over the past three days, the remaining month of the World Cup will be more misery for their host of long-suffering supporters.
We had assumed that the presence of the game’s most prestigious event in the Caribbean would at least be enough to motivate the players to aim for the unprecedented achievement of becoming the first host team to win the trophy.
It has proved precisely the opposite over the first two matches of the Super Eight round.
The manner of the losses to Australia on Wednesday and Thursday and, even more so, to New Zealand yesterday was nothing short of shameful.
Someone has to be held accountable and the buck, as always, stops at the captain.
Brian Lara was reinstated for his third stint at the helm specifically to lead the team on this assignment.
He is understandably desperate to top his celebrated career with the legacy of a World Cup triumph. He has four matches to turn things around, to ensure that his last time as leader does not end, as the first two, in disappointment and despair.
This is Caribbean turf. This is the game’s premier and most prestigious event. There have already been upheavals enough to undermine it.
It cannot afford more performances such as these that will surely lead to the unceremonious exit of the host team.
If there weren’t many West Indians in the stadium named in honour of one of their greatest players, there were countless others beyond expecting a performance befitting the occasion.
What they got was a weak capitulation.
Their bowlers were battered and their batsmen intimated by the ruthless Australians, champions of the previous two tournaments and intent on a hat-trick.
The New Zealanders exposed their temperamental frailty even more cruelly yesterday.
The batting was brushed aside for 177. It was a clearly inadequate total but, even after Daren Powell again struck early, this time with the second ball of the innings, and the run out of captain Stephen Fleming at 77 for three after 21 overs that opened the possibility of a real contest, the West Indies played as if in stupor.
The last 10 overs or so, as Scott Styris and Craig McMillan were gifted runs by opponents waiting for the relief of inevitable defeat, were some of the most demeaning in recent memory. And there have been several in that category.
The body language degenerated into resignation and the apathy was most noticeable in Chris Gayle’s abject fielding. It was slackness noted by the crowd which treated it with vocal derision.
The first, unmistakable inkling of the uncertainty in the camp came in the announcement of the eleven.
Jerome Taylor, the fastest bowler and the established spearhead of the attack since the DLF Cup in Malaysia last September, was dropped and his place taken by Lendl Simmons, a batsman in his seventh ODI with little pretensions as a bowler of any sort.
It was the most bizarre selection since the withdrawal of Carl Hooper, batsman and off-spinner, from the 1996 World Cup and his replacement by Cameron Cuffy, fast bowler. To compound the issue, Simmons, in his seventh ODI, was placed at No.8 in the order.
According to Andy Roberts on CMC Radio, a member of the panel that chose the original 15 but has no input into the match-by-match eleven, the option was Lara’s.
Now Lara must call the shots on the field as well, not only with commanding batting but, more to the point, with commanding leadership.
