This was a tour where the negatives outweighed the positives.
The recent West Indies tour of England for the Wisden Trophy was a series the West Indies players lost from the get go.
Whatever the reasons for the decision to tour England for a three test series, certainly money could not have been one of them for, in contrast to the England players, the West Indies players held the wrong end of the stick.
Perhaps the decision to tour England was indirectly related to England’s decision to loan Cricket West Indies some three million US dollars, a sum which it has been reported, has since been repaid.
The West Indies cricketers came to a country with one of the highest Covid 19 death rates in the world and saved the ECB about 280 million pounds.
It was a win for the ECB but a loss for CWI.
There were a lot of negatives one of which was the remuneration for the players.
While the ECB and by extension its players benefited from the tour, CWI and its players received a pittance in comparison.
Sure the players were paid but like Jason Holder said, they return home facing a 50 per cent pay cut in salary.
It all started with the contracts signed by Holder’s men which stated that there were no win bonuses for the players, instead the players would receive incentives for winning the series.
The incentives were not much, amounting to a total of 23,800 pounds to be divided among the player if they were to win the series.
In contrast, the England team, which lost the first test, saw its players picking up 6500 pounds per player for winning the second test in addition to the match fees.
For winning the series England players earned an additional 19,500 pounds.
Apart from England, there was another winner from the tour going forward, International cricket.
The experiment showed that cricket could be played without the players contracting the deadly coronavirus.
At least no one on either side did during the three test tour.
That the West Indies would lose the Wisden Trophy was not a given at the start of the series and after the first test victory, a series win was even being contemplated.
But from there things went rapidly downhill.
One of the main reasons for this was because of the failure of the team to make the necessary adjustments and for this the blame should be laid squarely at the feet of Coach Phil Simmons.
Like a broken record the players played the second and third tests the same way and Simmons belatedly decided to make changes to the team only after the second test was lost.
Years ago it was the general consensus that you should not change a winning team. That belief is steeped in tradition as much as superstition. Today it should be about horses for courses and the West Indies players and their coach failed to make the necessary adjustments.
The team had virtually given away its modus operandi prior to a ball being bowled when they had declared that they would utilse the same format that had worked on England’s previous tour to the Caribbean – pace like fire.
It seemed to work as the West Indies won the hard-fought first test mainly on the strength of exceptional bowling performances by Holder himself and Shannon Gabriel and Jermaine Blackwood, Kraigg Brathwaite and Shane Dowrich with the bat.
From there however it was all downhill as the fast bowlers struggled with the heavy workload and the batting deteriorated rapidly with each passing day.
One of the problems with West Indies cricket is that selection is not based on performances but on other factors.
The selectors always find reasons to select the players they want and not to select those who are performing.
If a batsman is not in form and is struggling he should be dropped and his place given to someone who is showing that he is in form.
This does not happen in West Indies cricket.
Team selection is the first reason for the failure of West Indies cricket as the selectors consistently select the wrong players.
Another reason is that the batsmen are not held to any standard and batting continues to be the team’s Achilles heel. The averages of the West Indies top batsmen in Test cricket are poor and reflect that, yet they continue to be selected based on a good score here and there.
One cannot pick batsmen who are averaging in their twenties and thirties in test cricket and expect them to do well.
Openers Kraigg Brathwaite and John Campbell are averaging 33.1 and 25.5 respectively, Shai Hope’s average is 26.3 and newbie Shamarh Brooks 33.5.
Yet Simmons was talking about scoring centuries. It was an altogether unrealistic expectation.
Not from this bunch.
It was not surprising that Blackwood’s 95 was the highest test score of the tour as Blackwood was the standout performer with the bat during the regional season. Perhaps if the selectors chose players who excel rather than the players they think will excel, West Indies cricket will be better served.
In the bowling department while it is all well and good to bowl fast on pitches that assist such bowling, on pitches that don’t, having the ability to swing the ball both ways would certainly help especially in English conditions.
Also there is need to monitor the work load of the fast bowlers especially when they are asked to do so much with so little rest in between test matches.
Sometimes one wonders whether the West Indies cricketers know what they are doing.
Watching them play they look like novices instead of the professional cricketers that they are.
They seem unable to plan and execute their plans properly.
On the contrary, the England bowlers seemed to have a plan for each West Indies batsmen while the West Indies fast bowlers seemed to want to blow the opposition away with pure pace.
The England tour should serve as an eye opener for CWI.
A thorough review of the tour should take place and the recommendations of the tour management taken into consideration.
Of the West Indies team, there is need for a quality batting coach (no disrespect to Floyd Reifer) to help the players and batting greats like Brian Lara and Sir Vivian Richards not to mention Sir Garfield Sobers should be contacted for their inputs as to the way forward.
This West Indies team needs all the help it can get.
