I could not understand why the senior strategists in West Indies cricket administration allowed Marlon Samuels and Devon Smith to continue batting after they had passed a century at  Georgetown, Guyana on Sunday and, worse, that Samuels should have been allowed to go beyond a double century. For Heaven’s sake, this was a warm-up match between two ‘local’ teams, and four days before the important first Test match against Pakistan at the Providence Stadium.

A practice match is for everyone to get a chance to practise.

There are two main factors of surprise. First, Samuels is almost a certainty for the Test, yet he is put under extended physical pressure in the unnecessarily long innings to a double century. Second, for as long as Samuels and Smith remained at the crease beyond their reaching their centuries, so long was another player, or other players, being denied the opportunity for some practice out in the middle.

I repeat, this was just a practice match…so a double century there does not really count for much.

The unnecessarily long spell of batting for Samuels could have led to muscle strain or some other injury, thus jeopardizing an outstanding performance in the coming, major match, though it is still to be seen  the extent to which fatigue affects his performance come Thursday onwards.

Perhaps there is method in the madness of the WI strategists, but so often I don’t detect it.