By Cosmo Hamilton
So the post-Sammy era has begun but as the aging New York Yankees Baseball catcher Yogi Berra used to say – ‘its like déjà vu all over again’ – with the West Indies capitulating meekly in the First Test match against New Zealand at Sabina Park in Jamaica in less than four days, losing by a whopping 186 runs to go one down in the three Test series. And it really did seem like nothing has changed except for the new man at the helm – wicketkeeper Dinesh Ramdin who got 39 and 34 respectively in the match, if only to show some measure of responsibility at his new position.
Nursing a bad back in his 100th Test match coincidentally on his home ground opening batsman hit man Chris Gayle managed a workman-like 64 in the first innings, as Shivnarine Chanderpaul in typical fashion with relative ease gathered 84 not out as he ran out of partners, pushing the West Indies first innings total to 262 in reply to the Kiwis’ 508 for 8 declared.
There was precious little else to write home about except for the impressive return of pacer Jerome Taylor to Test cricket after a long layoff. The Jamaican quickie would have been pleased with his returns of 26 overs, 11 maidens, 37 runs and 1 wicket in the first innings and 12 overs, 4 maidens, 28 runs and 3 wickets in the second innings. Notably despite the