Dear Editor,
Now that the cricket world cup has ended, I would like to make a few comments on the performance of the West Indies team. To say that the performance of the West Indies team was poor would be an understatement, it was more like atrocious and embarrassing and at times too painful to watch. To begin with, the captaincy of Jason Holder was poor and lacked imagination. He does not possess that killer instinct and to go for the jugular when West Indies are on top and the opponents are down and out, for example against Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. He is too laid back and allows things to drift and does not seize the crucial moments. Also, his own performance was mediocre and was the worst of all the captains at the world cup. I strongly believe Clive Lloyd made a big mistake when he appointed Jason Holder as captain at the age of twenty-two. He should have allowed him to develop as a player first and gain more experience before offering the captaincy.
As for the batsmen, although most of them are talented, many of them have technical flaws and lack mental awareness to read the game. In other words they do not know when to attack and when to dig in and fight it out when the situation warrants it. Too many times they threw their wickets away with ill-advised shots when the situation warranted otherwise. Many of them got out consistently by trying to hook balls that would have sailed over their heads or trying to pull balls to the leg- side at face height which they could have easily left alone. It was a question of poor shot selection. And Gayle was a big disappointment. As the most experienced batsman he should have been the lead batter with the rest batting around him, but it was not to be and that also hurt West Indies big time. He was a real let down. He should go now and give another young man a chance.
And finally the bowling was up and down, sometimes very good and other times very poor. Let me say this, it was a shame that Kemar Roach was not selected for the earlier games. He would have made a big difference. He along with Cottrell were our best bowlers. Oshane Thomas has a serious fitness problem and should not be selected for 50 over games, only 20/20 games. His pace drops drastically when he has to bowl 10 overs and his fielding is very poor. We also needed another quality spinner. Nurse and Allen were no good. We desperately needed a Sunil Narine and Russell should not have been selected with all the injuries problems he has. Keemo Paul should have been selected instead.
Editor, I cannot end this letter without mentioning the selectors. Until, we have selectors who will put West Indies cricket first before their personal and fellow countrymen’s interest, West Indies cricket will continue to be in the doldrums. We must eradicate insularity from West Indies cricket and to this end the buck stops with Ricky Skerritt and Dr Kishore Shallow.
Yours faithfully,
Imtiaz Baccus
