Tony Becca, Contributing EditorTHE PERFORMANCE of the West Indies cricket team has been such that their fans are frustrated - so much so that they have just about reached the point of giving up hope that their once beloved Windies will ever again be numbered among the best.
Listening to the fans, their frustration stems not from the fact that they are losing. According to them, their frustration is based on the fact that the players, undoubtedly the best in the region, keep making the same mistakes time and time again, and instead of improving, they are going from bad to worse - and especially so the batsmen.
Based on performances, there is no difference between the bowlers and the batsmen.
In three innings in Australia, for example, the bowling, but for Corey Collymore, has been so weak, so wayward, that Australia scored 435 and 283 for two declared in the first Test, in spite of a spirited performance on the third day, Australia scored 406 in the first innings of the second Test, and the batting has been so poor that the West Indies were routed for 210 and 129 in the first Test, and after scoring 149 in the first innings of the second Test were 82 for four in the second innings at the end of the third day's play.
While one can forgive the bowlers - and for the simple reason that they are just not good enough, it is difficult, very difficult, however, to forgive the batsmen - for the simple reason that numbered among them are some talented and experienced ones, batsmen like Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Brian Lara who have some good and great performances behind them, a batsman like Devon Smith who is good, and one like Marlon Samuels, who, in the opinion of many, is rich in talent.
The question, therefore, is this: why can't they perform?
Is it because of technical weaknesses, is it because of the lack of team spirit or is it because of something else?
While there is no doubt that there are flaws in the technique of some of them and that the team spirit is far from what it should be, there is a possibility that apart from Lara, the reason for the failure of the batsmen is something else - and probably that something else is a lack of confidence.
THEY ALL SEEM AFRAID
Looking at the West Indies batsmen in action, they all seem tentative, they all seem afraid, the result is that they did not drive or cut deliveries which they should have driven or should have cut, they played at and edged deliveries which they should have let alone and all that suggests a lack of confidence.
Another question, therefore, is what has caused this approach to batting - this attitude that is foreign to West Indies batsmen.
Is it that Australia's bowling is so good, so great, that Gayle, Smith, Sarwan, Lara, Chanderpaul and Samuels are afraid of it? Or is it that all the talk about batting long, about spending more time in the middle has got to them to the extent that they who love to hit the ball, are now afraid of hitting it?
While there is no question that pacers Glenn McGrath and legspinner Shane Warne are great bowlers, and that pacer Brett Lee is good and getting better, it appears that the problem is a lack of confidence.
Still another question, therefore, is what has caused this lack of confidence - and the answer it seems is two fold.
It could be a combination of too much coaching at that level and coaching that prevents a West Indies batsman from doing what he does best.
Coaching is good - no doubt about that. Coaching is best at the lower levels of the game, at the club level, however, and not at the highest level.
At the highest level, it is time to compete, by the time someone gets to the highest level he should be ready to compete. If he is not ready to compete he should not be selected.
At the highest level one should be left to compete and he should be left to compete the way he knows how to compete.
To attempt to teach someone technique at the highest level is a recipe for disaster, to attempt to tell someone how to bat when he is preparing to compete can lead to nothing but disaster and those in charge of the preparation of the West Indies would do well to remember that.
GAYLE BEST WHILE ATTACKING
With all his faults, Gayle, for example, is an attacking batsman, he is best while attacking, and he must be allowed to attack. In fact, he is like a sitting duck when attempting to bat long, to defend his wicket - and for the simple reason that weaknesses in technique are more glaring and easily exploited when a batsman is defending.
Lara, but for two dubious decisions when he was adjudged leg before wicket to a right-arm bowler bowling round the wicket with the ball moving across him and slanting down the leg side, but for one brilliant catch in the gully, may have scored some runs and who's to tell, may have made a difference between the West Indies falling for low scores and posting some fighting totals.
The fact, however, is that the West Indies batsmen, all of them have been batting out of character. They have been like lambs to the slaughter and that may well be why, on good batting pitches at that, they have been easy pickings for Australia's bowlers.
