Given their infamous record, complacency is not a problem that has concerned West Indies captains of late. They have simply had nothing to be complacent about.
Chris Gayle insists that it won’t change, no matter how emphatic, rare and momentous the victory over South Africa in the first Test at St.George’s Park.
“The work doesn’t stop because we won this time,” the captain said here as the West Indies spent the day they earned through their four-day victory mainly relaxing on the beach home of the front of this coastal city. “We still have work to do and we’ve got to improve.”
They fly out to Cape Town this morning to prepare for the second Test, starting there on Wednesday.
A reference to South Africa’s home series last season will confirm Gayle’s caution.
India won the first of their three Tests by 123 runs only to lose the remaining two, in Durban and then in Cape Town.
Pakistan levelled their subsequent series 1-1 by victory in the second Test but lost the last, like India, in Cape Town.
Gayle is under no illusions that South Africa, duly stung by their unexpected thrashing and desperate to maintain their No.2 spot on the International Cricket Council (ICC) Test rankings, will once more regroup.
He was concerned that the home team shouldn’t misinterpret the West Indies team’s ecstatic celebrations on the field after the victory as triumphalism.
“We’ve had to come a long way and I’m sure they’ll understand,” Gayle said. “They’ll be back strong again so we’re prepared for that. We’re looking for the fight and ready for the challenge.”
“We just have to stick to the basics and try to play good cricket,” he added. “Cape Town is always a good batting wicket so hopefully we can put up a better performance than we did in this game.”
He noted that this was an unusual situation, not simply because it was the West Indies’ first victory in their ten Tests in South Africa, and the first over relevant opponents for over seven years, but because it was the first in the series.
“Usually we win the last Test when the series is actually over,” he noted. “This is a start and we’re 1-0 up in a three match series so we’re not going to be complacent or anything like that”.
Gayle was not strictly correct on his history but he had a point.
The West Indies have won only one final Test in a dead rubber, through their record 418 for seven second innings against Australia at the Antigua Recreation Ground (ARG) in 2005. But they avoided whitewashes with draws in the final Tests against England in the Caribbean in 2007 and India in India in 2003-04.
Gayle was at the start of his career when the West Indies last won the opening Test (apart from Bangladesh and Zimbabwe), over England at Edgbaston in 2000 and by an innings in three days at that.
He should recall what happened next – three successive losses, one in two days with totals at 54 at Lord’s and 61 at Headingley.
Asked what department of the game was causing the greatest concern, he identified the batting – in spite of the first innings 408 in the Test.
That contrasted with the all out 175 in the second and totals of 193 and 214 in the loss of South Africa ‘A’.
“If we can contribute a lot with the bat, then definitely we have a very good chance of winning games,” he said. “The bowlers are doing a terrific job so we just have to put the runs on the board and whenever we’re in the field capitalise on those catches.
So the batting is very important”.
South Africa were under pressure throughout against the controlled speed and hostility of Fidel Edwards, Daren Powell and Jerome Taylor and the smart medium-pace movement of Dwayne Bravo.
They were backed up by fielding unrecognisable as the slipshod efforts of the past.
But Gayle’s concern over the batting is not misplaced.
He himself made an immediate impact at the start of the match with his attack, especially on South Africa’s strike bowler, Dale Steyn, that brought 13 fours in 66 off 49 balls.
Daren Ganga and Marlon Samuels, whose inconsistency has led to their spasmodic selections over their several years in the team, twice played with purpose and discipline and Shivnarine Chanderpaul was, well, Shivnarine Chanderpaul.
But Runako Morton is more a Test No.5 than a No.3, a position he is holding for the injured Ramnaresh Sarwan, and the current unease against pace of Bravo and Denesh Ramdin, batsmen with strong credentials, creates a low order weakness.
Yet South Africa’s troubles are even more pressing, especially at the top of the order.
Graeme Smith, the left-handed captain, averages 30.02 with one hundred in his last 20 Tests. His long-time partner, Herschelle Gibbs, has gone 26 Tests without a hundred and his pair, courtesy of Powell, reduced his average over those matches to 25.69.
Their partnerships in the three home Tests this season – the other two were against New Zealand – have been 1, 8, 2, 1 and 4.
They are numbers that place a tremendous burden on the rest of the order and, especially, Jacques Kallis.
As he demonstrated in Pakistan in October, against New Zealand in November and in the second innings here, Kallis thrives as much with such responsibility as Chanderpaul does for the West Indies but the load must eventually take its toll.
The West Indies’ aim over the remaining Tests is to make sure that it does.
