Dear Editor,
The outcome of the West Indies-South Africa match is hardly surprising, though viewers had expected more runs would be scored to make the contest interesting. Hardly anyone I have spoken with in India believes the West Indies has a chance in the World Cup. Some even doubt Windies can make the quarter finals, and no money is put on the team in India where cricket gambling is huge. Thus, no one was shocked at the team’s dismal performance at the Feroze Kotla Stadium in New Delhi on Thursday. However, youngster Darren Bravo came in for some praise for turning in a very good performance. Almost everyone feels he has a bright future ahead, and he is compared with Brian Lara. Darren demonstrated some superb strokeplay which his older teammates should imitate. Dwayne Bravo’s batting was also respectable, though he is not seen as a dependable like some all-rounders on other teams. The Windies will miss Dwayne since he is unable to continue from his injury suffered after bowling a delivery to Graeme Smith. The West Indians could not negotiate the bowling of newcomer, Pakistani-born Imran Tahir, who got them to dance to his mesmerizing leg spins.
Spectators had expected Chris Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan to do better, and had hoped Shiv Chanderpaul would have scored more runs. But they all disappointed. Even the bowling lacked teeth, and it would do the Windies well to get better coaching for their bowlers, and even some better bowlers would help. People were making negative comments on the captaincy and management of the team, wondering who selected the players for such an important tournament and for this particular match, and querying if the management is not responsible for the team’s poor performance.
Spectators say they can’t find any ability or skill in Darren Sammy as Captain or as a bowler or as a batsman or as an all-rounder. In short, the general feeling, even among commentators and paying persons, is that Sammy should not be in the West Indies team or in any respectable team. Many felt that if the West Indies wants a specialist captain, they could have gone for Trinidad’s captain Darren Ganga, who is highly respected in India for his captaincy skills and his strategies. And Ganga is a far better batsman and may be better even in the bowling department as some feel Sammy is an excellent long-hop bowler who will give batsmen a field day to score runs.
The little interest in the match can be seen from the very sparse crowd, with the management losing entry money. Even TV viewership was low and advertisers don’t even want to pay to air commercials to broadcast this and similar matches. Most people are interested in the matches India plays, India’s first home game was yesterday against England in Bangalore. On Thursday, 25,000 people tried to purchase 7000 available tickets. There was chaos with police using lathi charges against people who had lined up to purchase the limited tickets. Many were injured.
Indians take the game seriously and many are involved in illegal betting. In speaking with one bookie just by chance, the betting odds are RS 1.38 for every rupee bet on India, and it is expected this winning return will decline as India wins more and more matches. Very few are willing to bet against India and very few are willing to bet on the West Indies, Bangladesh, New Zealand, Zimbabwe and the four other minnows. Besides India, Australia and South Africa are the other betting favourites.
Yours faithfully,
Vishnu Bisram
