Tony Cozier concentrates on the on-field portion of this World Cup disaster. Some highlights:

A call for another waste-of time inquiry:

No house will be torched, no effigies burned, no buses stoned and, to be sure, no resignations tendered. But the lamentable cricket that has left the West Indies all but out of their own World Cup at the half-way point demands urgent investigation and attention.

A direct poke at Brian Lara’s famous retirement statement:

There can be no more “devastating failure” than has befallen the West Indies in the past week.

An obvious note that we’re now in minnow-land:

There has been a lot of talk about the so-called minnows devaluing the tournament. It is a charge that could now be justifiably made against the West Indies, once the kings of the game and champions of the first two tournaments.

And, the clincher, legitimising reports Lara is the only man running the show:

In mitigation, Lara has noted the pressure of playing four days out of six, a consequence of an ill-considered itinerary.

That is counterbalanced by the absence of a physical trainer for the West Indies team since the Australian, Bryce Cavanagh, resigned during the Pakistan tour in December and reports that the level of his regime since taken over by physiotherapist Stephen Partridge had been reduced on the advice of the captain.

Posted in Brian Lara, Captaincy, World Cup |