Forget 'competing', it's time West Indies had a touch of class...

Sun, Jun 3, '12

Years ago, when England used to lose every time to Australia, the clue was in the verb. English cricketers would arrive Down Under, they said, hoping to ‘compete’.

The suggestion that they might actually ‘win’ barely came into it. And so they would play decent cricket for a session here, maybe even a day there. But the belief was missing. England would compete – and then Australia would win. The narrative became so predictable it got boring.

Which brings us to West Indies. As their coach, Ottis Gibson, spoke on Monday at length and with passion about the need for his top-order batsmen to sell their wickets more dearly – and to study the way Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook build their innings – you did not have to read between the lines to sense his frustration.