West Indies lead selector, Roger Harper is not satisfied with the current standard of West Indies batsmen and believes there must be more consistency and development coming from the first-class level.
Recently, Harper was on the Mason and Guest radio programme where he gave his input on how West Indies can get better.
The lead selector compared West Indies to other international sides and highlighted that a number of batsmen in their Test side average in their 40s while some even in the 50s. However, in the Caribbean, they average in the low 30s and some in the 20s.
In the last decade, Shivnarine Chanderpaul averaged 59.14 while Chris Gayle averaged 54.86 but both players have not played a Test since 2015 and 2014 respectively. Raymon Reifer, with just one Test under his belt in 2017 averages 52. Carlos Brathwaite, who played three matches in 2015-2016 averages 45 but no other player averages in the 40s.
Darren Bravo did not tour England for personal reasons and had been missing from West Indies cricket for a while but has the highest average for current players with 37.69. Shamarh Brooks, Jason Holder, Kraigg Brathwaite, Roston Chase and Jermaine Blackwood average in the low 30s. Meanwhile, Shane Dowrich, Shimron Hetmyer, Shai Hope and John Campbell average in the 20s.
“Look at our just-concluded Regional Four-day championship, our bowlers dominated, we keep claiming our standard needs to be raised but it’s our batting that needs to be raised at the moment,” he stated. In that eight-round tournament, Alzarri Joseph (three matches), Nkrumah Bonner, Blackwood, Kjorn Cottoy, Joshua Da Silva, Jyd Gulle (two matches) and Kyle Mayers averaged above 50 while six players averaged in the 40s and 17 in the 30s. Only 23 centuries were scored in the 48 matches.
The former West Indies off-spinner contended, “I think if you are not scoring runs consistently at whatever level you are playing and you step up to a higher level you are going to find that much more difficult.”
He confessed “I think as well while the clinics and the camps do help and they are very important I think as well the players got to take some responsibility for their development, they look around and see the standard set by other players in the international arena and other test teams and want to make sure they are at that level or surpassing that level.”
He added:“If you are not having our batsmen, our best players scoring consistently and heavily in our championship, if you are not in the habit of doing that then it is more difficult come the Test matches where you have higher quality of bowlers who are able to execute plans more efficiently and you are not used to batting for long periods and concentrating for very long periods so it’s going to be a struggle.”
The selector weighed in that not only does the their technique need improvement but also their ability to manoeuvre against different types of bowling and deliveries.
“We also need to get our players used to scoring runs consistently and that happens at the first-class level or whatever level they play. If they play club level they have to score heavily, if they play first-class they have to do that so when you get to the Test level it’s in your subconscious.”
