Dear Editor,
No one made me stay up several hours during the night to follow these matches, so I accept the responsibility for my foolish behaviour. Two broadcasting comments on Cricinfo early (Toronto time) yesterday morning almost brought tears to my eyes. They were:
“This is ugly, terrible batting from young Shimron. He lost his head and he lost his wicket, a repeat of his second innings dismissal in Rajkot”.
“He [Ambris] played the paddle to a straight ball.” These comments came not long after Holder had bowled his heart out to keep the West Indies in the game with significant help from Gabriel and Warrican, and Brathwaite and Powell had been dismissed in the twinkling of an eye, the latter another left-hander at the mercy of an off-spinner opening the bowling precisely because Powell was opening the batting. Let me make it clear that every one of the cricketers whose names I have mentioned are talented young men who deserve to be in West Indies “test” squads.,.but it bears remembering that Shai Hope, another such talented batsman is 24, has played less than 25 test matches, but.is supposed to be the leader of the batting unit. This situation is ridiculous and need not exist. Young players must play with experienced players for a period of time before they play on their own. Lara did not become the leader of our batting unit when he was surrounded by kids. He developed in an environment of seasoned cricketers. What is more when young people engaged in these stressful environments have the kind of experiences that Ambris had in his first three “test” matches psychological help is an absolute necessity. Brathwaite has been going through a difficult patch these last few years, so he must be helped to find himself. We must as a member of the ICC also address the extraordinarily high percentage of home-advantage wins in Test cricket.
We must approach this cricket business in a different way, with considerably more thinking, which would mean much more preparation, both physically and mentally. We have not had a real batting coach for years, and we continue to treat the mental element of the game as if it really doesn’t matter much. If this board cannot take the heat they must get out of the kitchen.
Yours faithfully,
Romain Pitt