As if to emphasise the point that the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) One Day rankings is perfectly accurate, the same day that lowly-ranked West Indies and Zimbabwe were battling to their record lowest Twenty20 scores ever at the Queen’s Park Oval in Trinidad, New Zealand and Australia were blasting the highest Twenty20 aggregate miles away in Christchurch.
In the latest rankings released, the West Indies are the number eighth ranked team on 1785 points while Zimbabwe are ranked 10th with 823 points.
Last Sunday, while Zimbabwe, 0-3 after 2.4 overs scrapped their way to 105, the West Indies imploded an opening stand of 20 between Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Adrian Barath to reach 76-7 at the end of the lone Twenty20 fixture that preceded today’s start of the five one-day international series.
The West Indies’ batting of late has often resembled an “organized mess” to use a popular oxymoron but if the truth be told, it did seem as if there were some demons in the pitch to which the batsmen on either side succumbed to.
West Indians Darren Sammy and Sulieman Benn recorded the third and fourth best Twenty20 bowling figures ever of 5-26 and 4-6 respectively as six Zimbabwe batsmen recorded ducks while the seventh Ray Price was left unbeaten on nought.
When the West Indies batted the Zimbabwe spinners, led by Price, strangled the West Indies batsmen leaving them high and dry some 26 runs adrift with batsmen Andre Fletcher and Darren Bravo adding to the ducks tally a clear indication that the pitch might indeed have been difficult to bat on.
If Twenty20 cricket is meant to be a `Big Bash’ then the batsmen could be forgiven for having a go or, as the saying goes, throwing the kitchen sink at every available opportunity.
Twenty20, the ultimate fast food of cricket, is supposed to be short and sweet, stimulating and spectacular, and last but by no means least – satisfying.
Fifty overs, though is an altogether different kettle of fish and batsmen can score as much as 200 runs in one innings if you are a genius named Sachin Tendulkar.
The two sides will today at the Guyana National Stadium at Providence, engage in a little more meaningful exercise that is if the battle between two of the lower-rated teams on the ICC ranking list in a one day series can be termed meaningful.
Simply put, the one day series represent the battle of the also ran in a race where the might of Australia can be compared to a Usain Bolt in a 100m dash. Their performances would certainly not count.
Zimbabwe, formerly Rhodesia, became an associate member of the ICC on July 21 1981 and improved enough to be granted full membership in 1992.
They had, however, participated in the 1983 World Cup but despite drawing their first test had failed to move into the upper eschelons of the sport.
A strike by a number of their senior players crippled the sport to such an extent that the team no longer competes at the test level and the team is understandably anxious to be readmitted.
Bowling coach Heath Streak admitted as much.
“This is an important tour for us and the world is looking at Zimbabwe cricket in terms of our progress,” said Streak, who snatched 216 wickets and scored a Test century during an outstanding 65-Test career which ended five years ago.
“We have got to start winning matches and our goal is to get back into Test cricket in a year-and-a-half time. The guys are working very hard at this and this tour is very important in that regard.”
Dave Houghton, Zimbabwe team consultant was more direct. “I personally think we should be playing test cricket by the end of the year,” was his candid and optimistic prediction.
Like the West Indies, Zimbabwe will be under a new coach in Alan Butcher but he will miss the first two ODIs and will join the team for the third.
While Zimbabwe’s stated intention is to show in this series that they deserve to be readmitted, new West Indies coach Ottis Gibson is excited about the challenges of leading the West Indies team back up the ladder.
“It’s an exciting day for me to be sitting as head coach of West Indies cricket. The physical aspect of all sports determines whether an athlete will be successful or not. It is key as far as I am concerned,” Gibson said.
Gibson’s challenge, however, will not so much be the opposition Zimbababwe, but the players he will be coaching.
They have been competitive in reducing the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) to having to literally beg them to sign retainer and other contracts but have shown little inclination to fight on the field of play against opponents who can fight back as shown on Sunday.
Previous coaches going back to Rohan Kanhai, Roger Harper and Viv Richards to name a few have found West Indies players of different eras a handful to put it mildly.
In the West Indies’ previous limited overs series against Australia, they lost four of the five one day internationals and both Twenty20 encounters notwithstanding captain Chris Gayle’s boast that they would have won the one day series 4-1.
Gayle’s comments, and his seeming penchant for challenging authority might have endeared him to his players but have done little towards changing the fortunes of the once proud maroon clothed side.
To their credit the West Indies were without several of their stronger players in Australia but a team is basically only as strong as its reserve players.
Australia showed during the one day series that they could effectively give a few players a “knock” without severely weakening the balance of the team.
Today, the West Indies will be strengthened by the return of a few players including the dependable Shivnarine Chanderpaul.
But though superior on paper the West Indies are among the more unpredictable teams in world cricket.
If one were to judge from the lone Twenty20 encounter, this one day series should be too close to call.
Zimbabwe’s batting will revolve around Hamilton Masakadza who has shown a liking for the West Indies bowling in the past.
Masakadza scored 1087 runs last year at an average of 43.48.
He should receive support from the experienced Tatenda Taibu, Elton Chigumbura and skipper Prosper Uteysa.
The West Indies will be without batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan who, though returning to the regional competition for Guyana’s final round clash against the Windward Islands where he scored a century, has been ignored by the selectors.
In the circumstances Keiron Pollard, who showed tremendous improvement Down Under will be a key figure in the middle order should Chris Gayle fail to fire at the top.
While individual performances will go a long way towards a win for either side, it will be consistency and team work that will prevail at the end of the day.
The Zimbabweans have never won a bilateral one-day series against the West Indies.
They will be chasing that bit of history.
The West Indies will be fighting to avoid that indignity.
