Dear Editor,
Looking at the West Indies performances on their recent tour to South Africa there are some positives that came out.
We lost the test series 2-1 and the One Day Internationals 5-0 but this is not a true indication that we were dominated by South Africa.
We broke the ice by winning our first test ever on South African soil by 128 runs and we won the opening twenty-twenty match. In the opening twenty/twenty match the bowling and the fielding were clinical and incisive, reminiscent of the mid-eighties and early nineties with the unforgettable Clive Lloyd at the helm.
In fact, during the course of the opening twenty/twenty match one of the South African commentators was pushed to compare our present fast bowling attack to that of the Roberts, Holding and company era.
The competitiveness that was lacking by recent West Indies teams on foreign sojourns was evident. Towards the middle and end of the tour injuries to key players such as the captain Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo and Fidel Edwards affected the team.
Also, Ramnaresh Sarwan was missing due to injury and our No. 1 batsmen Shivnarine Chanderpaul was knocked out by the flu in the third test
During the heyday of West Indies dominance Clive Lloyd was at the helm and now on the South Africa tour he is the manager. It appears as if there is a positive effect when Clive Lloyd is around. It is time the West Indies cricket administration make use of this cricketing icon’s knowledge and reward him with a portfolio for life with the administration of West Indies cricket.
The rebuilding process is a long one and it will take some time and patience to get back to where we were in the mid-eighties and early nineties.
Yours faithfully,
Brent Lionel Griffith
