By Tony (McWatt) and Reds (Perreira)
The Men’s Senior team in danger of losing a three-match ODI series to Ireland and an Executive Board in apparent disarray. These were the rather unsavory developments that punctuated West Indies cricket’s second week of the 2022 new year. The start to which had already given us sufficient reason to have described as interesting in our very first article for the year.
Having made the much-heralded announcements of Desmond Haynes and Ramnaresh Sarwan as its new Selection Panel members, the Ricky Skerritt-led Cricket West Indies (CWI) would have been hoping for its Men’s Senior team to have provided both of those very qualified gentlemen with a most comfortable introduction to their duties by means of a resounding ODI Series victory against Ireland. The three-match ODI Series, at Jamaica’s Sabina Park, had been initially scheduled to be played from January 8-14.
As it turned out some members of the Ireland squad tested positive for COVID, immediately after the conclusion of the January 8 first ODI. As a result, the second and third matches of the series had to be rescheduled to January 13 and today.
The one-off T20 Inter-national between the teams which had been scheduled for today was also canceled altogether.
Far from cruising to the comfortable series victory Ricky Skerritt’s CWI would have been hoping for, the West Indies were lucky to have scraped home to a 24-run victory in the January 8 first ODI. They were then resoundingly beaten in the second.
The West Indies’ top-order batting in both the first and second ODIs against Ireland can only be described as deplorable. West Indies posted 279 off its 50 overs in the first ODI and fared even worse in the second, managing to reach just 230.
Had Ireland not faltered badly in the last 12 overs of its response to the West Indies’ 270 in the first ODI, the result could well have been the same as that of the second, a very comfortable victory for the visitors. From a relatively comfortable position of 173/3 after 37.3 overs the remaining seven Ireland wickets then fell for just an additional 72 runs to leave them 24 short of their required victory target.
The West Indies’ total of 230 in the second ODI proved to be even more inadequate than the 270 scored in the first. Ireland’s very comfortable acquisition of that target was never in doubt, even before the benevolent intervention of the rain interruption. The eventual victory margin of five wickets was a very accurate reflection of the visitors’ superiority over their West Indian hosts, in both batting and bowling.
The inability of the West Indies batting to reach anywhere close to the 300+ totals, which have long since become the established par scores for 50 overs matches, will be a major concern for selectors Haynes and Sarwan. As will the continuing alarmingly high numbers of dot balls faced, of which there were 180 in the second ODI.
Heading into today’s third and deciding ODI Ireland’s chances of winning both the match and the overall series, seemed to be as equally good as those of their hosts, based on the evidence provided from the first two matches. For West Indies cricket fans, such a defeat, immediately following as it would be the team’s ignominious loss of the Pakistan T20 series, would be incomprehensible. Even moreso because the Pakistan series loss had also been preceded by the West Indies’ most embarrassing and highly forgettable performances during the ICC T20 World Cup just a month before.
Should such a previously unthinkable outcome occur, the West Indies losing a ODI series to Ireland, attention would then surely be focused on Haynes and Sarwan in terms of their choices for the team’s next scheduled ODI encounter. That will be in just a month’s time and against far more formidable India in its own backyard.
The squad for the T20 series at home against England which precedes that tour having already been selected, Haynes and Sarwan’s duties will be relegated to that of keenly interested observers. One specific area for their highly focused observation should be Kieran Pollard’s captaincy. Despite his match-saving innings of 69 in the first ODI against Ireland, questions now still abound as to his continued suitability as captain for next year’s India hosted ICC ODI World Cup.
The forthcoming T20 series against England should also provide the Haynes-Sarwan led Selection Panel with decisive answers to the more immediate question as to whether it should indeed be Pollard who remains at the helm for the West Indies’ attempts to qualify for and eventually participate in this year’s forthcoming Australia hosted T20 World Cup. Despite the series loss, Nicholas Pooran’s demonstrated leadership during the most recent Pakistan T20 encounters, was sufficiently suggestive of him being a more viable captaincy option than Pollard.
The eventual Ireland ODI series results, as well as those of the five T2o matches against England, should also provide telling answers as to the continued suitability of the Phil Simmons Coaching cadre. Under their collective direction, the West Indies team’s performance of even the most rudimentary requirements of effective whiteball cricket has been evidently lacking for far too long.
Simmons’ Head Coach appointment has been recently described by Barbados’ CWI Director Calvin Hope, as the immediate outcome of one of the very worst decisions ever made by CWI. The mentioned decision having been the Skerritt-led administration’s chosen action to not renew the Head Coach contract of the then incumbent the England-born Richard Prybus.
Hope’s public outburst outlining the many inadequacies of the Skerritt-led CWI, was just one indication of a now increasingly apparent disharmony between the beleaguered president and other members of its executive board. There were reports of Skerritt having wanted to offer the now-deposed previous Selection Panel members Roger Harper and Miles Bascome a two-year extension to their contracts which were initially scheduled to have ended last October. Those contracts were eventually extended for just two months before the board made its final decision that they would not be renewed.
Skerritt has reportedly also come under fire for his hurried presentation of Haynes and Sarwan’s names as the replacements for Harper and Bascome. At least three board members are reported to have abstained during the associated voting process for the approval of their respective appointments. Not as an objection to their candidacies, but rather to the hurried manner with which they had been presented.
An unexpected ODI series struggle against lowly-ranked Ireland, reports of a divided CWI board, and continuing questions surrounding captaincy and coaching. Merely midway into just its first month, West Indies cricket’s 2022 has indeed gotten off to a most interesting if not ignominious start.
About The Writers:
Guyana-born, Toronto-based, Tony McWatt is the Publisher of both the WI Wickets and Wickets monthly online cricket magazines that are respectively targeted towards Caribbean and Canadian readers. He is also the only son of the former Guyana and West Indies wicket-keeper batsman the late Clifford “Baby Boy” McWatt.
Guyana-born Reds (Perreira) has served as a world-recognized West Indies Cricket Commentator for well over fifty years. Reds made his broadcasting debut during the 1971 West Indies-India Test Series, and has commentated on hundreds of matches since then!
