Tony Becca -FROM THE BOUNDARY

THE SUPER Eight round of the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 championship begins in Johannesburg today and the West Indies, who, not surprisingly, failed to win a match in that round during the last World Cup a few months ago, will not, again not surprisingly, be in action.

The West Indies, the once mighty West Indies, the once undisputed kings of Test cricket and one-day cricket, the only versions of the game up to a few years ago, were knocked out after losing, not only to second favourites South Africa, but also to rank outsiders Bangladesh.

In the first match of the tournament, the West Indies, despite a cracking, record-breaking innings of 117 off 57 deliveries from Chris Gayle, lost to South Africa who won with eight wickets in hand with 2.2 overs to spare. Then in match number five, after Gayle was dismissed for zero, the West Indies lost to Bangladesh, who won with six wickets in hand and with two overs to spare.After scoring an impressive 205 for six and setting South Africa a run-rate of more than 10 runs per over, the first defeat was embarrassing. It was, however, nothing compared with that against Bangladesh, lowly Bangladesh who, after looking 165 for victory, sprinted home with as many as six wickets in the bag and as many as two overs still to come.

To lose a Twenty20 match to anyone is no disgrace. The West Indies performance, however, was terrible.

Not only did they lose one, they lost two, not only did they lose two, they lost one with eight wickets to spare, one with six wickets to spare, one also with two overs to spare and one with more than two overs to spare, and unlike what so many West Indians have been saying since the second defeat, it had nothing to do with the pitch.

Although the match started late, even though Bangladesh won the toss and, as all the teams but one have done, decided to field first, the West Indies, lest it be forgotten, were 95 for one in the 14th over after Gayle had gone in the first over, and also lest it be forgotten, Bangladesh, despite losing their first wicket at two and their second at 28 in the fifth over, eased to 137 for two before Ramnaresh Sarwan, bowling legspinners, picked up two wickets in two overs, while conceding only 10 runs.

The West Indies lost both matches simply because, as they have been doing for sometime now, they played some bad cricket - and especially so in the field.

worst fielding team

In both matches, the West Indies were embarrassing in the field and equally so with the ball.

Based on their performance, the West Indies were the worst fielding team on show. They were also probably the worse bowling team on display, they bowled far too short or far too full, they sprayed the ball all over the place, and in doing so, they bowled 25 wides against South Africa and eight against Bangladesh.

That means that the West Indies, in a Twenty20 tournament, bowled an extra five overs and three balls in two matches.

The defeat against Bangladesh was particularly embarrassing, and it was embarrassing not only because the Bangladesh squad of 15, with three teenagers, three 20 year-olds, four 21-year-olds, four 23-year-olds and one 25-year-old, is much younger than the West Indies squad, and not only because seven of the eight West Indies wickets that fell went to Bangladesh's three spin bowlers - including four for 21 off four overs by the 20-year-old left-arm spin bowler Shakib Al Hasan.

The defeat of the West Indies was also embarrassing because the Windies, the team which does not believe in spin bowlers and so often falls to spin bowlers, had to turn to the part-time spin of Sarwan to rescue them from total embarrassment.

After losing two wickets early, Bangladesh were heading for victory without losing another as the 23-year-old Mohammad Ashraful and the 21-year-old Aftab Ahmed caned the Windies' quartet of pace bowlers before the arrival of Sarwan.

what went wrong

According to the much quoted, and especially as far as the younger players are concerned, the too much quoted West Indies players, after a defeat they always know what went wrong they seldom correct it, they always know what to do next time around an they hardly win, they are always confident that once they do the right things they will win next time they play.

What is really important, however, is that they know the right things to do and that they play well.

For them to play well, however, they will have to learn the game, they will have to talk less and practice and train more, and it appears that Sarwan has finally realised that.

Speaking immediately after the West Indies had lost to Bangladesh, captain Sarwan, reacting like a man who had just had a vision, said that after what happened in South Africa during the past few days, and with a tour to South Africa coming up, in order to win, in order to play well, "it is important that when we get back home we work on our game - on our batting, bowling, and fielding".

That was nice to hear and one only hopes that the players were listening.