It is useful to assess each West Indies Test series in terms of its significance for the future of West Indies cricket, both the immediate and the more distant future. Such an assessment must always be made in the light of the present ultimate objective of West Indies cricket, namely, the regaining of the global ascendancy lost to Australia in 1995, nearly thirteen years ago.
The recent Test series in South Africa revealed a number of strengths and weaknesses of West Indies cricket. These strengths need to be maintained and the weaknesses corrected if the team’s performance is to improve. Where batting is concerned, the principal strength is the very productive and consistent performance of Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who hopefully will continue to be the pillar of the team’s batting for several more years.
The revelation of the tour, however, was the batting of Marlon Samuels who had the highest aggregate (314 runs) on either side and finished second to Chanderpaul in his team’s batting averages. Long described as highly talented, Samuels showed a discipline, application, concentration, determination, careful shot selection, good sense and high value for his wicket not demonstrated previously in his chequered career of 27 Tests. If he maintains this commendable performance in the future, a major problem of the middle order created by the retirement of master batsman Brian Lara will be partially solved.
Another encouraging feature of the Test series in South Africa was the improved contribution made by the usually fragile West Indies’ tail to the team’s batting. Jerome Taylor gave signs that he may be able to develop into a useful bowling all-rounder, somewhat like Malcolm Marshall. The contribution of the lower order is likely to be further enhanced in future if Daren Sammy, who is an able batsman, can command a regular place in the team.
The series in South Africa, however, did raise at least three disturbing questions about the West Indies batting in Tests in the future. The most serious one relates to the need to find an able opening partner for Chris Gayle. Darren Ganga followed up his terrible performance in England last year by failing again, scoring 117 runs in six innings with a highest score of 45, an average of 19.50 and a low position of seventh in the team’s batting averages.
Ganga seems to be technically the best of the current West Indian openers. However, he seldom makes a significant score and because of his limited stroke play often finds it difficult to get the ball off the square when facing accurate bowling. On two occasions in the past, he has been dropped before being recalled to give him an opportunity to salvage his Test career. His poor performance in England and South Africa suggests that the time has come to discard him permanently.
The troubling question is who should replace him as Gayle’s partner. Like Ganga, Devon Smith, in spite of his impressive performance as a youth player and in the regional first-class competition, has been unsuccessful in his Test career. Similarly, the candidacy of Wavell Hinds, though better than that of Smith and Ganga, is not strong. In the circumstances the selectors are beginning to look to other players, notably Sewnarine Chattergoon, Brenton Parchment and Lendl Simmons, to fill the opening spot, but these are inexperienced, unproven openers with unknown ability and potential. In short, the prospect of the West Indies finding a capable partner for Gayle in the immediate or foreseeable future is not bright.
The second disturbing feature of the team’s batting in South Africa was the performance of Runako Morton, a specialist batsman occupying the No. 3 spot in the batting order. Morton had scores of 33 and 5, 23 and 1, and 1 and 37 – an aggregate of only 100 runs in the three Tests and a paltry average of only 16.66. Although he has had some useful innings in limited-over cricket and possesses the virtue of determination, he has limited ability and potential as a specialist batsman in Tests. He should be discarded from the Test team in future. A fit Ramnaresh Sarwan is his obvious replacement.
Even more disconcerting than Morton’s batting where the future of West Indies cricket is concerned was that of Dwayne Bravo. He failed in five of his six innings in South Africa, finishing sixth in his team’s averages with an aggregate of 122 runs and as average of 20.33. He needs urgently to develop consistency and greater productivity if he is to occupy as high a position as Number 6 in the batting order.
In striking contrast to his batting, Bravo’s bowling in South Africa was very impressive. His effectiveness there and some of his previous success with the bat elsewhere suggest that he has the ability or potential to become a genuine Test all-rounder of quality, a rarity in the history of West Indies cricket.
Similarly, Denesh Ramdin’s impeccable work behind the stumps and useful batting in South Africa give renewed hope that he will render invaluable service to the West Indies in this capacity. Obviously he needs to concentrate on making a more substantial contribution with the bat, as Gilchrist (now retired), Sangakkara, Boucher and Dhoni do for their teams.
The West Indies bowling in South Africa was on the whole better than in tours in recent years, when it almost invariably encountered difficulty in dismissing reasonable opposition twice. Yet no combination of the current bowlers gives this writer confidence for the future. There is a marked lack of consistency. Furthermore, none of the fast bowlers is very penetrative, is a master of swing or movement off the pitch or possesses a good command of both line and length. On good batting tracts this attack is still likely to find it difficult to dismiss any of the top Test teams regularly for a reasonable score.
Although the West Indies won a Test against South Africa overseas for the first time, the series has highlighted the most fundamental weakness of West Indies Test cricket, namely, the paucity of unequivocally world-class players. Where batting is concerned, this means players who can be depended on to have an average of over 45 runs an innings consistently against good bowling attacks, especially overseas.
Presently only Chanderpaul qualifies for such a status. Gayle and Sarwan, though world-class players in one-day international games, are still disappointing in Tests, with a batting average of below forty. Like most of their team-mates, their batting often suffers from poor shot selection and/or deficient technique. Now young veterans with nearly 70 Test appearances, they need urgently to emulate Chanderpaul by making a more substantial and consistent contribution to the team’s score in Tests, as they normally do in limited-over cricket. The future of West Indies cricket depends immensely on this.
In spite of the results in South Africa, the West Indies bowling may presently be less endowed than the batting. Certainly none of the fast bowlers, who are the spear-head of the attack, is a world-class bowler or seems likely to develop into one in the near future. In spite of this deficiency, this writer does not share the view advanced recently by Lance Gibbs that more balance needs to be created in the current and future West Indies attack by including a specialist spinner.
According to Gibbs in a Digicel press briefing in Trinidad last July, “if you look at the success of the other teams you will see that they all include a spinner. Australia has Shane Warne (now retired), Sri Lanka has Muralitharan, India has Kumble and Singh and recently you saw England using Monty Panesar.
We no longer possess the quality fast bowlers of the past and when you look at the regional competition it has always been a spinner topping the bowling. We need to select a balanced team if we hope to succeed.”
It is true that spinners take a lot of wickets in our regional first-class competition. But this competition is sub-standard and most Caribbean batsmen today are more vulnerable to spin
than to pace. The truth is that the West Indies does not seem to possess presently any spin bowler who is likely to be effective in Test cricket. In recent years the region’s best spinners – Mahendra Nagamootoo, Omari Banks, Dave Mohamed, etc – have had to be discarded because of ineffectiveness in an era where Test batsmen are accustomed to contending with spin bowling of very high quality. The West Indies presently has no Muralitharan, Kumble, Singh, Panesar or Vettori and there seems to be no such prospect emerging anywhere in the region.
In short, in the immediate future it seems that the West Indies Test team will be best served by having a pace/medium pace attack with spin being provided by Gayle and Samuels, though they are not specialist bowlers.
In spite of the positive features of the West Indies performance in South Africa outlined in the first instalment of this article, there is need for sober evaluation of the prospects of a team which has only one proven world-class Test batsman and no world-class bowler, with the possible exception of Bravo. In spite of its victory at Port Elizabeth in the first Test, there is no solid evidence that the team has “turned the corner.”
Clive Lloyd’s view that all the West Indies needs now to become a real force in international cricket is two more players, including a decent left-arm spinner, seems highly optimistic. A more sober and accurate evaluation seems to have been provided by Garfield Sobers who remarked after the Test series in South Africa: “I think we still have a long way to go”. Sobers rightly pointed out that the West Indies needs to improve the quality of its performance significantly and to become more consistent.
