Don Anderson | WI batters show value of applying themselves

Current West Indies cricket captain Roston Chase was recently quoted as saying, after a series of poor batting performances by the WI test team, that the real challenge for the team was the weaknesses in the infrastructure in our cricket.

While there is no question that our infrastructure does pale in comparison to the main cricketing countries like Australia, India, New Zealand, South Africa and England, I have long maintained that our biggest problem was the inability of the batters to apply themselves when this character trait was necessary to see us through difficult periods in a game.

This shortcoming has led to us suffering some ignominious defeats over these last 20 years and for us being bowled out for a paltry 27 runs on a pitch at Sabina Park earlier this year which did not hold many threats. The net result is that we are far from the glory days under the captaincy of Clive Lloyd and then Viv Richards, when we ruled the roost in the cricketing world. Today we are languishing near or at the bottom in all forms of the game.

In the recent first test against New Zealand played in Christchurch, the bowling unit continued to perform admirably by getting out the hosts for 231, with 2 young raw fast bowlers with two tests between them to date. It was now up to the batters to measure up and keep us competitive in the game.

Our eventual score of 167 runs, in the first innings epitomised and demonstrated the weakness in the batters where we lost a bundle of wickets through poor judgement and shot selection and crashed losing 4 wickets for less than 10 runs towards the end. It was another, too familiar sight of batsmen not being able to apply themselves to the task at hand. I agonized again about this performance, because it had nothing to do with inadequate infrastructure.

The New Zealanders then went on to cement that point when they scored a mammoth 467 runs in their second innings, with two of their batters scoring centuries, whilst losing only eight wickets. Their batters applied themselves admirably, shaking off the pressure of dropped catches to steady themselves and put together what under normal circumstances for us these days would be a total too far to reach. Indeed at 72-4 in the second innings, my fears were all but realized. Four wickets lost not through any special bowling by the opponent, but rather by the inability of the batters to apply themselves to the task at hand.

DON’T MEASURE UP

No challenge with infrastructure here, even though we have to concede that we don’t measure up in this regard.

What transpired next just served to make my point crystal clear. From this very perilous perspective of 72-4, nearly half the side gone for less than 100 in a chase of 531 runs, the batters proved that with proper application, good shot selection and with a little luck which every batters needs in an innings, we were able to save the match, force a draw and earn our first test points for this period. All of this was achieved through the most admirable demonstration of applying themselves. From 72-2 then, we scored another 385 runs for the loss of just 2 more wickets to end up securing a draw. In the process, a number of records were set.

The score of 457 was the highest ever for fourth innings in a test match, save for the test match that ran for 10 days and only ended then because one team had to catch their transport back to their country.

The performances particularly of Justin Greaves 201 not out and veteran Kemar Roach 58 not out, his highest first-class score, stood out. Roach batted for a record 209 balls, did not score a single run for over 100 minutes at one stage of his innings and between himself and Greaves applied themselves to the task of saving the game in a record partnership of some 180 runs.

There is no question that we need to significantly improve our infrastructure which would make us more competitive and lift us off the cellar of International cricket, but please for God’s sake, I hope the batters will seek to emulate this performance and stop crying foul on the facilities we have at our disposal. We will never be able to match the first world technology so readily available in the majority of the other cricket playing countries, but we are not short of the talent and skill to drag ourselves from the bottom of the test playing ladder, by more serious application of the skills we have at our disposal.

Let us hope that we will be motivated by this superb demonstration of the importance of applying oneself and batting with a greater sense of purpose and that we will see this kind of mettle being revealed more often than not in the remaining matches in this series and in upcoming tests.

We did not win this test, but it shows that we can compete amongst the best with better application and greater commitment to preserving our wickets.

Don Anderson, played Senior Cup and Junior Cup cricket for Melbourne Club and captained the Evelyn Cup team which included Courtney Walsh in his early days. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com