Team manager Clive Lloyd acknowledged yesterday that the West Indies would have to “play out of our skins” to create one of the modern game’s major surprises in the first Test against South Africa, starting at St. George’s Park here Wednesday.
Although he was satisfied that there were “no problems” with the bowlers, Lloyd was concerned about the batting and the schedule that features three back-to-back Tests with no opportunity for players to regain form and confidence in interspersed first-class matches.
“In (Jerome) Taylor, (Daren) Powell and (Fidel) Edwards we have three genuine fast bowlers who are now reaching their peaks,” the celebrated captain of the golden era in the Seventies and Eighties said.
“(Dwayne) Bravo and (Darren) Sammy are competent back-ups with their medium-pace.”
His misgivings over the batting were reinforced by the meagre totals of 193 and 214 against South Africa ‘A’ that led to defeat by 10 wickets in three days in their only match on tour outside the internationals.
Even worse humiliation was averted by a partnership of 57 for the eighth wicket between Sammy and Rawl Lewis in the first innings and 87 for the seventh wicket between Bravo and Sammy in the second.
Runako Morton’s 54 was the only half-century from the top five in the order.
“The problem is a lack of patience,” Lloyd said.
“They get pinned down by bowlers who don’t give them a drive for 15 or 20 minutes and frustration leads them into a big shot that costs their wicket.”
Such impetuosity was recurrent in the East London match.
Morton drove to mid-off when well set in the first innings. Marlon Samuels snicked a drive to the ‘keeper after spending 61 balls over 21 in the second. Bravo hoisted off-spinner Johan Botha to long-on to end almost three-and-a-half hours’ diligent application for 67.
Part of the reason is the present standard of domestic cricket where batsmen can expect two or three bad balls an over.
“What we need are a couple of Larry Gomes, a couple of stickability guys,” Lloyd said, referring to the reliable left-hander who, in his 60 Tests (average 39.63, nine hundreds), was a vital foil to the strokemakers of Lloyd’s great teams.
“Oh yes, we could do with a Greenidge, Haynes or Fredericks as an opener as well,” he added, with a chuckle and an understandable sense of nostalgia.
Lloyd is current head of the cricket committee and one of three non-member directors of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) but he felt that more reasonable itineraries need to be negotiated, given the current state of West Indies cricket.
“We have had excellent nets with very good local bowlers provided by the authorities both here and in Zimbabwe,” he noted. “But you can’t judge a player’s form on nets. There is nothing like the real thing, a competitive match in the middle, and East London was our only chance for that.”
He accepted that the number of teams the ICC now has to fit in to its programme has increased since he ended his career 22 years ago, with the addition of Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Bangaldesh.
With ODIs and now Twenty20 internationals to be accommodated along with the Tests, the days of several first-class fixtures on tour are over.
“Perhaps a team like Australia, which is so strong and well prepared, can get by without such matches but we can’t at present,” Lloyd contended. “We certainly could do with another first-class outing between these Tests.”
He noted that the team went directly into the ODIs in Zimbabwe and lost the first before regrouping to win the next three.
“East London was the first first-class match for most of our players for something like six months and now we have to front up for three Tests within three weeks against the No.2 ranked team,” he said.
It has become the norm.
The West Indies had one two-day match as preparation before going into three back-to-back Tests in Pakistan a year ago, losing the series 2-0, and one county match against Somerset, reduced to less than a day by rain, prior to their Test series in England last summer, losing 3-0.
Sri Lanka are scheduled one three-day match before the first Test and another between the first and second on their West Indies tour in March and April.
The Australians, who follow Sri Lanka in May and June, are satisfied with just one three-dayer before the first of their three Tests, opting instead for a later
week’s rest and practice in Barbados prior to the third Test, the one Twenty20 International and the five ODIs.
For the West Indies, series against such opposition in quick succession – two ranked equal second among Test teams and the other way in the distance at top – is as stern a challenge as they could expect.
They need to play “out of their skins” to meet it, starting here in the coming week.
