Former West Indies fast bowler, Reon King, who featured in the 1999 International Cricket Council World Cup reckons poor batting, injuries and one dimensional bowling led to the Caribbean side’s early exit in this year’s tournament.
Injuries
Paramount in the demise for the West Indies who won just one game in their seven matches to date were injuries to X-factor, Andre Russell and opening batsman Evin Lewis.
King said, “The injury to Russell was critical, after a decent IPL [Indian Premiere League] with the bat we expected more from him, [with the ball] we all know he would’ve struggled. He has struggled in the past to finish a 10-over spell but we took the gamble and thought he was good enough to give us a couple of overs and that didn’t really happen. With Evin being injured we had to do some shuffling around.”
Batting
With Russell and Lewis both shelved, King believed the Maroon boys “were a batter short. We had a set of all-rounders, bowling all-rounders I think. We were one genuine batter short and that could have probably helped a lot.”
The Level Three coach added, “…and the poor form of Darren [Bravo], in my opinion, I think he was pretty short of quality match practice. He came into England series having not played a lot of cricket since being reinstated and I mean a young player of his calibre back you want to see him but he was a bit short of quality cricket and he was always playing catch up cricket having him to get to the match level.”
Chris Gayle, although the most successful batsman from the West Indies, struggled to consistently carry on to pile on big scores as was hoped.
“Most of us have read or heard of his statement in reconsidering retirement, you know how the West Indies Board deals with that is up to them. He did say he was going to leave after the World Cup. He didn’t have the World Cup we would have all hoped for him to have, I don’t know if that had a bearing on his “U” turn, I don’t know if he wants to finish on a high, he’s talking about playing test cricket again, I know there is a test in Jamaica, I don’t know if he wants to finish there, he sets a lot of high standards and he probably felt he let them down but he is a very good batsman, he still deserves a place in the team with outstanding performances. He didn’t get the big scores as he would like but I mean he has shown that his new approach to batting where he soaks up a lot of balls in the `earlies’and his remarkable power hitting, he can always play catch up cricket just that it wasn’t good enough to take him through. Certainly age is a factor at 39 [years] and consideration of the new selection panel who could see it different so let’s hope and see.”
The 43-year-old, King, also reflected, “I would have liked if he was in form to play a role like Joe Root in the England set up where you get that explosion at the top with [Chris] Gayle and Lewis and you have someone who can score quick but hold the innings together and you have your young guns, [Nicholas] Pooran and [Shimron] Hetmyer and some of your hitters including a Russell so him not having form certainly contributed to the batting troubles.”
Bowling
The former seamer was critical of the bowling unit, highlighting the lack of a mystery spinner while suggesting that there was a lack of zest and “one dimensional” bowling apart from Sheldon Cottrell and the injury of Russell.
“Cottrell bowled well at the top again we missed a mystery spinner like most teams or even a wrist spinner and most teams look to include a spinner who can keep the batters in check especially when they are looking to hit, so the bowling was pretty much one dimension with the exception of probably Cottrell,” King stated.
“The length of attack, I think it worked against Pakistan but in the games after then I think it was overdone. In this day and age where there is television and these analysts, these guys work you out quickly than back in the day…they looked like they didn’t really have a ‘plan B’, if that length being an enforcing length of the short ball didn’t work, they could change, it just seemed as it wasn’t working and the guys decided to bowl fuller where we had the situation where it was either too short or too full,” he added.
“In the back end Kemar [Roach] showed us what was missing, that fullish length, not too full because he certainly doesn’t have the pace of [Shannon] Gabriel and Oshane [Thomas] and it was exploited against Bangladesh.”
The bowling, he said, was not supported by exceptional fielding that is expected of the West Indies having been regarded as the most athletically inclined team in cricket but apart from bursts of brilliance, they were ordinary.
“Athletically we are one of the better teams in world cricket but it was due to poor bowling contributing to it with balls going through legs and stuff like that these things do happen and you would want to minimize it. In world cricket you want guys narrowing everything down to a percentage and concentrate on the small things, avoid misfields and stuff like that, the employment of fielding coaches attest to that where guys have designated coach dealing with fielding. Cottrell’s catch was an outstanding catch but with our athleticism we could have done a lot better in the field and it is certainly a cause for concern.”
Youths
In the set-up that featured a significant number of young players, King said “A lot of youth in the side, which is good for the future, it just brings inexperience and I think that was a contributing factor [to the early exit],”
In the case of Gabriel King said that he, “has the pace. You can see he was mostly short of experience and that length, you look at someone like a Wood in the English set up, he has fit in nicely.”
While a lot of people have critiqued Pooran and Hetmyer for their poor shot selection and failure to value their wickets, King was supportive of their development and suggested that it was just mental lapses.
“If you listen to most of the commentary a lot of them were saying that these guys are 20-odd, and 300 balls is a lot of balls in cricket and I remember listening to one of these commentators when West Indies lost two quick wickets and Hetmyer and Pooran were batting and while they were inexperienced, they can take it as an opportunity to show that yes they have the talent and the skills just do it over a longer period…We could argue that there were some mental lapses in their stroke play because they were in control and then something rash contributed to their demise.”
Playing for pride?
Like most people in the Caribbean, King believes pride and confidence are riding on the performances of the side in their last two matches.
“Obviously they can’t go one, but with two games remaining, some guys would want to finish on a high and then a series against India who is probably a favourite to win the World Cup and one of the top teams in the world and we would want to gain some confidence coming into the series.”
What’s next?
Looking at the future of West Indies Cricket, King envisioned, “I think like most teams, World Cup is a threshold and I think it is the beginning of a new cycle so rebuilding should be foremost on the West Indies radar. We have a bunch of talented youngsters we just have to get it together, sit around the round table, get the best and brightest in the Caribbean and move from there. We have six territories playing the cricket, we should take into consideration the Windward and Leeward Islands, examine the programmes and the success will hinge on planning and execution…I know with the likes of India, England, Australia, there is much difference like chalk and cheese compared to us with cricket but I’m sure with Jimmy [Adams] being Director of Cricket he would want to put something solid in place for us to be a force to reckon with at the next World Cup. We have the youths, we always compete at the Under-19 level and those guys should come to the fore now so we need to have them in programmes of higher cricket standards heading into the World Cup.”
