Tony Becca, Contributor

The West Indies are 2-0 down in the one-day series against Australia and the third match takes place today in Grenada.

Although it is a limited-over contest, and although the West Indies were expected to make it interesting, unless something extra-ordinary happens, at the end of the day it will be 3-0 in favour of Australia, with the tourists heading for a clean sweep.

And with the bowlers doing reasonably well, the two losses so far have been because of the Windies inconsistency in the field, and, most importantly, because of their disappointing performance with the bat.

Weak batting

Contrary to what the coach and the captain have said, however, the West Indies performance has nothing to do with which team play well on a particular day. It has nothing to do with concentration or patience. And it has nothing to do with the failure to put together partnerships.

It is simply that, but for Shivnarine Chanderpaul, to a lesser extent Ramnaresh Sarwan, and although he has not been scoring runs lately, also Chris Gayle and probably Dwayne Bravo, the West Indies batting is weak. That, without a doubt, was underlined in the first two matches.

In the West Indies team were Xavier Marshall, Andre Fletcher, Patrick Browne, and Kieron Pollard batting, and with due respect to them, with all the talent and the good looking drives through the offside when presented with a half-volley, they are not ready to challenge bowlers at the highest level.

And although Marshall is 22, Fletcher is 20, Browne is 26, and Pollard is 21, even though Bravo is only 24, Daren Sammy is only 24, Denesh Ramdin is 23, and squad member William Perkins is 21, it has nothing to do with age.

It, however, has something, a lot, in fact, to do with experience - with grooming, with learning to bat on all type of pitches, in different conditions, and against different kinds of bowlers and bowling.

In comparison to the Australians who, under normal circumstances, get into the national team at around age 25 or 26 (and after many, many first-class matches), West Indians in recent times not only get into their national teams much younger, but also without performing at the first-class level.

Players like Sonny Ramadhin and Alfred Valentine, for, example, and also the great Gary Sobers, got into the West Indies team at 20 and younger - and they got in on sheer talent and promise.

What is important, however, is the fact that they got in at that age and without anything under their belts during the days when there was no organised first-class cricket in the region.

Young, untried players

On top of that, it was only one or two at a time. In those days, the selection of young, untried players certainly was not par for the course as it seems to be today.

Batting at number one on Friday in Grenada was Marshall - 19 first-class matches, 907 runs, average 27.48.

Batting at number three was Fletcher - 13 matches, 548 runs, average 26.09, with Bravo batting at number five with an average of 31.28.

At number six was Browne - 47 matches, 1672 runs, average 21.43, and batting at number seven was Pollard who has played in 13 matches and has scored 721 runs at an average of 34.33.

May be that was why, replying to Australia's 213 for five after Michael Clarke and Michael Hussey had led a recovery after joining the action at 35 for three and after scoring only eight runs off the first 10 overs they faced, the West Indies batsmen, but for Chanderpaul and including Gayle and Bravo, fell like lambs.

Marshall went first ball - hanging out his bat like a novice and edging a catch to the wicketkeeper, Fletcher swung wildly and across a good length delivery and was bowled off-stump.

After Bravo hit Shane Watson to Hussey on the square-leg boundary, Browne, looking like a man in a trance against left-arm slow bowler Clarke, edged a catch to slip, and then Pollard, after leaving alone the first delivery from Clarke, swung wildly at the next and was caught on the long-off boundary.

That was 53 for six after 25 overs and the contest was over.

According to Gayle, the West Indies lost the first match because Australia played better on the day, and according to the West Indies captain, they lost the second match because their batsmen lacked patience.

Better players

The reason why the West Indies lost is simple. It is because Australia are better than the West Indies in every department of the game.

They are better because their players are better prepared than those of the West Indies. The Australians are better prepared because Australia have a much better first-class system than the West Indies.

Even if they cannot match the Australians, until the West Indies improve their first-class cricket - plus school cricket and club cricket - and thereby allow the players to improve their skill, until they can pay their first-class cricketers a decent salary, but for a good performance here and there, nothing will change.

And remembering that their first-class batting average is 34.00 and 32.16, respectively, that their Test batting average is 28.73 and 19.00 respectively, it matters not that players like Marlon Samuels and Sewnarine Chattergoon are absent.