Queens Park Oval Training Camp Farce

In this article for the Trinidad Express, Garth Wattley describes the farce that ruined the West Indies practice game over the past weekend.

The game was suddenly abandoned after the pitch was deemed too dangerous to continue play.

It was another good day for play.

But it was another bad day for West Indies cricket.
The noonday sun was beating down on the Queen?s Park Oval yesterday. The handful of people on hand were still in their seats. But the cricket was over, the groundstaff pouring water on the pitch.

The hose could not however, wash away the memory of a farcical morning.

A four-day practice game that presented the only form of match preparation for Carl Hooper?s team before the up-coming First Test against Pakistan in Sharjah, was over after just two days and one session.

The reason? A pitch that had become a health hazzard.

?In ten days? time we?ve got a Test match. This was going to be the last game that we play before we go straight into the Test match, so it?s disappointing that we couldn't get a full four days in,? was skipper Hooper?s restrained response yesterday.

He had been an eye-witness and probably the chief advocate for proceedings to be curtailed. Hooper himself was the recipient of a delivery from Darrel Brown that took off and struck him, supposedly on the glove and went to Shewrin Campbell in the slips, but he showed no inclination to stick around.

Hooper probably did not want to suffer the fate of Ian Bradsaw. The Barbadian left hander was struck a painful blow on his right thumb from a good-length ball from the less-than-express Brown which jumped on him. It was at that point that discussions began in earnest about the future of the match. And by the time the seventh man was dismissed with the Hooper XI?s total in the second innings standing at 72 for 8, things came to a halt.

According to manager Ricky Skerrit, Bradshaw, despite having half the nail on his right thumb ripped off, was willing to return to the crease. But it was not a risk managment was willing to take in the circumstances.

?It wasn?t good,? Hooper stressed.

?Balls jumped from being pitched fairly full up. I think the exercise today would have been fruitless. The first two days it was okay but today it went from bad to worse.?

Coach Roger Harper shared his captain's sentiments.

?Right from the start I don?t think the pitch played as well as we would have liked,? he said.
?Even though on the second day for a while it settled down, it was terrible today.?

West Indies selector Joey Carew, speaking in his capacity as a member of management at the Queen?s Park Cricket Club, sought to explain the problem.

?The wicket is a bit uneven, there are little ridges in it, so he (the groundsman) has to level it off. We did over all the wickets in September so we expect to have some improvements and repairs to do to them. It?s unfortunate that it happened in a game like this, not that I thought it (the pitch) was disastrous.?

The team management, desperate to get in as much cricket as possible, are hoping to stage a limited overs match today. It was one of the reasons why yesterday?s play was called off.

But even if the surface is made good enough for cricket, there is the other problem of personnel. The injury hoodoo which has bedeviled the team in recent months, and claimed Ramnaresh Sarwan last Thursday, has now struck opener Chris Gayle and left-arm spinner Neil McGarrell.

Gayle came down yesterday morning with what Skerritt described as, ?some sort of muscle spasm in a muscle somehwere close to his right elbow which is being treated.?

The manager said the injury was not considered a ?major problem,? but Gayle was scheduled to see a doctor yesterday afternoon.

The injury to McGarrell is more straightforward. He was hit on the big toe by a Corey Collymore yorker in the Hooper XI first innings. The toe is still swollen. This too is not considered a major setback. But just the rumour of an injury these days is enough to make team management nervous.

The overall standard of play during what cricket there has been so far, would not have inspired much optimism either.

?I just thought the batsmen did not apply commonsense in every situation,? noted Harper.

?It is disappointing to see on a wicket where a lot of batsmen struggled, the ones that got in, they did not take full advantage of it.?

Hooper took up his point.

?We had Wavell (Hinds) scoring 70 and more or less chucking it away. Ryan Hinds, after getting to 30, chipping and then sweeping and being stumped.

We got to continue to express the desire to have players going on once they get in, scoring big runs,? he said.

Today, the WI skipper will be hoping desperately for smoother progress, especially where the pitch is concerned.

For him, there have already been too many bumps on the road to Sharjah.