Cricket West Indies’ Director of Cricket, Jimmy Adams is the latest to express his disappointment with the woeful batting display that led to a 2-0 series whitewash at the hands of South Africa recently.
Adams made his feelings known while appearing as a guest on the Mason and Guest radio programme on Tuesday.
The former West Indies batsman criticized the performance of the West Indian batsmen as the team failed to reach the 200-run mark in each of their four innings which ultimately led to an innings and 63-run defeat in the first match followed by a 158-run thrashing in the second Test.
“I share the general disappointment that is felt across the region. I guess because I have a bias of being a former batsman myself, I think it’s not so much losing but I think how it is disappointing for me is not really seeing a batting unit fire at all, to fall below 200 in four consecutive innings is not what we want to see,” he said.
Only two batsmen reached the half-century milestone but even that did not allow any of them to aggregate over 100 runs in the series. Partnerships were also hard to come by with one 50-plus stand and three in the 40s.
While the Director of Cricket believes that South Africa came into the series as favourites, he feels that the inspiration of playing at home should have triggered a better fight from the West Indians.
“I think South Africa would have come here as favourites. I don’t think anybody would argue either looking on paper or just recent results but that said, I am a firm believer that home advantage does count for something,” he reasoned while adding, “People get inspired at home, people sometimes push harder at home…so while I would say South Africa would have started as favourites I am still disappointed in the results…”
He added, “It doesn’t matter who beat us here 2-0, the number one team, India, Australia had the same result and losing in that manner to qualify the statement. I know guys are trying but you just wanted to see a little more fight for the batting unit.”
