Hobart humiliation

West Indies Captain Jason Holder appeals unsuccessfully during the First Test match between Australia and the West Indies in Hobart, Australia. (Cricket Australia photo)

“A raft of post-mortems has inevitably followed yet it remains difficult to foresee where to next for West Indies cricket. The most feasible, if disturbing, answers point to a split into the separate territories that have banded together for over 100 years or else its inevitable demise in Tests with concentration solely on the shorter, white ball formats.”

 

OF all the harrowing days the West Indies have endured on the Test grounds of the world over the past couple of decades, and, heaven knows, they have been plentiful and persistent, none were as horrific as the two and a half it took to capitulate to Australia in the first Test of the series in arctic Hobart.

Australians were sensible enough not to expect a competitive challenge. Recent results alerted them to the situation. The team’s loss by 10 wickets to an anonymous Cricket Australia XI in their solitary lead-up match immediately justified their media’s proposal, impractical as it was, for switching the showpiece Tests in Melbourne and Sydney, assigned to the West Indies, for palpably stronger New Zealand.

20111211tonycozierYet they couldn’t possibly foresee just how limp the West Indies would be at the start of a contest, offering them the chance to at least restore a little of their tarnished reputation.

As Jason Holder slowly and ruefully trudged back to the pavilion after his second innings dismissal on Saturday, to a leg-side tickle to the keeper, it was the first sign that the pressure after defeat in his first three Tests at the helm, two by an innings, was impacting on the young, inexperienced captain.

Ian Chappell, the former Australia captain, speaking with the obvious admiration he holds for West Indies cricket, termed it “ridiculous” to hand such a youthful cricketer the most difficult job in the game and “then burden him with a poor team.”

He referred to the glaring lack of support for Holder from senior players, those “who need a kick up the backside.” There were no prizes for deducing that those he had in mind were Marlon Samuels, a talented, underperforming batsman in his 15th year of international cricket, and Jerome Taylor and Kemar Roach, the new ball pair with 77 Tests and 250 wickets between them.

Samuels loitered around the outfield in Hobart, showing little interest in the proceedings. His fingers on both hands were taped so that he resembled a version of some Egyptian mummy. Occasionally, he donned his designer sunglasses, occasionally he broke into a casual trot in pursuit of the ball.

Taylor, the same bowler who started his previous Test against the same opponents on his home ground of Sabina Park in Kingston in June, with five consecutive maidens and two wickets, and Roach, well down in pace from his trip down-under five years earlier, each got the series underway with a no-ball, first up.