By Reds Perreira
The West Indies/England series is now safely behind us. All West Indies fans are no doubt happy that we surprised all by beating England 1-0 in the Test Series, although the One Day confrontation ended in England’s favour through John Dyson’s error in Guyana and the West Indies’ team apparent lack of mental readiness and desire to play and win in the last one day international at Beausejour.
Although Chairman of Selectors Clyde Butts’s explanation of the first test squad was much appreciated, it was disappointing that he did not continue his welcome dialogue with the press as the tour proceeded. How Xavier Marshall was selected for the first test remains a mystery after his top score in New Zealand was 29.
The logical and progressive move would have been to bring in Lendl Simmons from St Kitts to Jamaica as he had scored a double century for West Indies ‘A’ against the tourists. After our most welcome victory over England at Sabina Park, it appeared that we simply went on the defensive with regard to selection. It was as if we were happy just to draw the rest of the matches and win the series 1-0.
When we moved to Antigua we still played the disappointing Darren Powell, and had two left-arm spinners turning the ball away from the right handers, while Amit Jaggernauth could have been included in place of Powell to turn the ball the other way. Also having won the toss in Antigua, we should have batted. Instead, we ended up with egg on our faces having our tail-enders batting to draw the Test match.
The pitch at Kensington was disappointing as was our selection and Lionel Baker should have been preferred to Powell. However, it must be said that had we held our catches on the opening day, England would have hardly scored 400 runs. Our batting did respond positively in Barbados, though led by Ramnaresh Sarwan who lost an opportunity to join the 300 Club, and we did manage to wipe off the psychological advantage England might have in Antigua.
As we got to Port of Spain for the last and fourth test match, there was every indication we were playing for a draw even before the toss was spun. Ravi Rampaul should have been brought in to replace the injured Jerome Taylor. And we showed a lack of positive thinking by staying with the costly Powell.
The big surprise was the omission of our spinner Sulieman Benn on a Port of Spain pitch that tends to help men who bowl slow and again England were able to have the advantage towards the end.
It must be said that Captain Chris Gayle led a young victorious side to a series win but the margin might have been even wider if we’d had more positive selection and a more attacking captaincy. On so many occasions during the England batting, one wished there was a third slip; a silly point or a silly mid-on for the new batsman. In Trinidad in particular, Ryan Hinds did not bowl with an orthodox mid-on and mid-off, conceding easy singles to the boundary edge and never building pressure.
England on the other hand was also negative in their declaration although Andrew Strauss had a good series with the bat and as time ran out in two test matches he knew that two balls could have changed the series result.
So on to England we go, where it is going to be very cold and the pitches possibly green. We have to find a partner for Gayle and solve the number 4 position. Brendan Nash and Dinesh Ramdin offer depth to the batting, while Darren Sammy and David Bernard Jr will no doubt contest the position of all-rounder in support of Fidel Edwards, Taylor and Benn.
