Dear Editor,
THE West Indies were humiliated in the just concluded tour in Sri Lanka. More serious was that the defending 2021 ICC World Cup champions failed miserably to even advance from the ‘play-offs’.
It was indeed very much anticipated that the team that was selected to play in the World Cup would only be able to participate in the tournament. The administrators and particularly the coach and chief selector did not offer any explanation for their choices, total failure. The performance of the once powerful West Indies was so disgraceful that there is no certainty that they will play in the up-coming 2022 ICC world Cup Championship.
West Indies are scheduled to play Pakistan in three One Day Internationals and three 20/20 Internationals during this month. While the West Indies team selected to play in Pakistan does not include some of those pensioners who were selected to participate in the last World Cup, the team on paper certainly look much inferior to the powerful Pakistan team.
The team will be under Shai Hope as the captain. Hope is not even a certainty to play if he is not captain. The tried and tested Nicholas Pooran will be his deputy on tour.
The batting looks very feeble on paper. Darren Bravo, who was a standby passenger in the world Cup will be the certainty batsman in the team. It will be interesting to follow the performance of Shamarh Brooks on tour.
Young Justin Greaves along with the experienced Roston Chase will have to be at their best. The three all-rounders, Raymon Reifer, Ramario Shepherd and Odean Smith are the future of West Indies cricket.
The spinners are Hayden Walsh Jr, Akeal Hosein and Gudakesh Motie.
It is interesting to know that this team will have to play against the might of one of the best batsman in the world, Babar Azam. However, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Rizwan and Fakhar Zaman, along with Shaheen Afridi and Haris Rauf, not to name the others, are hot favourites to humiliate the West Indies. Cricket fans and supporters in the Caribbean will be looking at the West indies team playing against Pakistan only to have more stress and frustration.
As we move into 2022, the home team is scheduled to play the powerful English team in a test series. All eyes will be on the team that will be selected to play against the powerful visitors.
The batting in the last test series was so poor that not a single West Indian player was able to score a century or even average 50 in the series.
Skipper Kraigg Brathwaite was in a sea floating. While Vice-Captain Jermaine Blackwood was a total failure. Nkrumah Bonner was lost.
The West Indies were humiliated by 187 runs in the first test match and by 164 runs in the second. It is better for us to forget about what took place in that test series. However, Veerasammy Permaul and Roston Chase bowled encouragingly.
West Indies cricket desperately need the intervention of the Caribbean leaders. The quality of cricket that we are seeing around the world is far superior than the mere participation that the West indies team is engaged in.
Yours sincerely,
Neil Kumar
