The nonsense that has become West Indies cricket was unveiled big time yesterday before a colourful and beautiful crowd at the best cricket venue in the West Indies, notwithstanding its placid pitch.
We have all heard about the horrendous acts of incompetence committed by the West Indies Cricket Board’s executive lineup from top to bottom recently including the unforgettable Benneth King affair and culminating with the with dropping of one of the team’s best young batsmen Chris Gayle. Well today the selectors continued their foolish ways by opting to shockingly leave out paceman Tino Best from the final 11. It left the attack threadbare and at the mercy of the Australian batsmen who obliged willingly.
When Best was called up to replace the ailing Jermaine Lawson, one immediately thought that one young promising paceman was coming in for another.
But lo and behold, Best was left to fetch the drinks in another display of cowardice that saw Lawson being left out until the very last match of the World Cup.
Why is it that the selectors are afraid to give our young fast bowlers their due is something only Sir Vivian Richards and company could answer. It seems as though nothing of the positive aggressive thinking has rubbed off on himself and fellow panelist Gordon Greenidge from their days playing under Clive Lloyd.
Were it not for Lloyd’s influence we might have never heard of Michael Holding who was put into the firing line with only a handful of domestic wickets but with raw pace and went on to become one of our greatest fast bowlers ever.
Similarly Colin Croft and Joel Garner were catapulted into the Test team without any great credentials and became part of the feared four pronged pace attack which went on to terrorise the world. And it does not require a rocket scientist to determine that Best and Lawson are of the same mould where hostility and pace are their hallmarks.
These young players are being retarded by a bunch of clueless selectors who would be better off watching the action, rum and coke in hand. They do not belong on any panel that is now consistently using military medium pacers the likes of Pedro Collins and David Bernard who would hardly terrorise a rat had any ventured onto the pristine Queens Park Oval sward.
With due respect to the Barbadian left-armer, he is at his prime and can get no better, therefore it would only make sense to give the younger players the opportunity to hone their talent.
As a result, West Indies are receiving another pasting from Ricky Ponting for the second game in a row, along with Darren Lehman and God knows how many more from the pavilion.
Why Gayle continues to be omitted is so mysterious one can only conclude the rumours of personality clashes within the team have some meaning.
Indeed, yesterday was another sorry day for West Indies cricket as a sorry looking bunch represented the maroon flag on the field. Missed catches were caused by sloppiness and poor field placing as Lehmann was let off by the attitude-prone Marlon Samuels at first slip while two others flew past a non existing second slip that captain Brian Lara left vacant even for his best bowler of the day Merv Dillon.
Matters were not helped by another display of umpiring slackness at its best. Rudy Koertzen did not see a clear edge off Lehmann’s bat which wicketkeeper Carlton Baugh Jr accepted while earlier the error prone Asoka Da Silva continued to give decisions that should be the exception rather than the rule.
As he has done in almost every international game graced by his presence in recent times, he sent players packing when they should not have been and in this case the unlucky ones were Justin Langer and Matthew Hayden.
Only the good Lord knows how worst off West Indies would have been had Australia’s luck been better.