Grading The 'A' Team Batsmen

The West Indies 'A' team tour of England has ended. Except for the early weeks of the tour when they seemed jaded and unmotivated, the team managed to gel as a unit, and for the most part, the batsmen put together many decent scores.

All eyes were on the openers on this tour, a group that included captain Darren Ganga, Devon Smith, Lendl Simmons and Chris Gayle, the Test batman whose arrival on tour signalled a turnaround in the attitude and fortunes of the team...

Interestingly enough, Ganga and Smith are two of the three openers locked in a dogfight for the number two slot on the senior team. Into this mix, throw heralded Dwayne Bravo who has opened, and some interesting combinations could develop. Darren Ganga, who even though he scored heavily against the county second and third elevens, failed just as spectacularly in all the matches against International competition and should be the odd man out.

For someone who has been around as long as he has, one would expect that he would at least have put together one good score against India or Sri Lanka.

As for the bowlers, the returns showed that there is still much work to do. Reon King and Jermaine Lawson at least showed that they are contenders, and one would hope that King, who had previously looked the part before injuries sidelined him, will quickly round into form in time for the ODI World Cup warm-up in Sri Lanka and the tour of India that follows.

Without further discussion here is my report card on the performance of the 'A' teamers:

DARREN GANGA: C
His gaudy tour average of 54.16 notwithstanding, here is a batsman who has promised much with his perfect technique, and delivered precious little after fifteen Test matches. He failed to deliver in the tour matches against India and Sri Lanka, and these are the teams I would use as a yardstick to judge whether Ganga should be persevered with. Still, in his favour, he's only 23. However, like Stuart Williams in the last Busta Cup, I am forced to dub Darren Ganga "Mister Irrelevant" until he has a full Busta Cup season under his belt and scores lots and lots of runs to show he could be trusted to open at the test level.

CHRIS GAYLE: A-
Coming off of a long international season, Chris Gayle joined the 'A' team and immediately raised the level of play. Even though he failed to score a century, his usual forthright batting must have been an inspiration for the younger players. He managed to average 47.20 and also continued to show improvement as a bowler in both the short and longer versions of the game.

DEVON SMITH: A-
Devon had a very rough start to the tour, but showed great resilience and commitment by battling back to achieve a tour highest score of 181 against Lancashire batting at the unaccustomed number three spot. More importantly, in the first class match against India, he was run out for 69. On the back of his 90 odd against India in St Lucia, the time has come for the selectors to promote Smith to the senior team. Immediately.

GARETH BREESE: (Incomplete)
With only one score over fifty, and an aggregate of 92 runs, Breese still has lots of room for improvement. Most of his tour was curtailed by injuries, and I hope he recovers fully to realize the promise he has undoubtedly shown.

DWAYNE BRAVE: A
With an aggregate of 350, second only to Devon Smith?s team-high 465, Bravo proved to be the surprise of the tour. He impressed all who saw him; Sean Beynon of CricInfo wrote, "Still only 18, Bravo has the talent to become a first-team regular. He might even be more special than that." Bravo is the player who did the most on this tour to serve the selectors notice.

RYAN HINDS: C+
A late bloomer on this tour, Hinds did enough towards the end to show why many in the Caribbean are so impressed by his abilities with both ball and bat. Like Ganga, he has been there or thereabouts as far as the senior team is concerned, and one was looking for standout performances from him. His bowling needs work, but he's young, and has shown enough to be persisted with.

RUNAKO MORTON: C-
A disappointment! His one day approach to batting, even in first class engagements, leaves much to be desired. If he is to play at the test level, he must discipline himself and play long innings. His shot-gun approach to batting is overdone and his results reflected that. A first-class average of 27.25. Surely someone with his talents could do a lot better.

In another installment, I will deal with the bowlers, wicket-keepers and the all-rounders.

** Lawrence Romeo is a diehard West Indies cricket fan who travels around the world to watch the team play. He spends much of his days as "larr" arguing about West Indies cricket in the CaribbeanCricket.com message board.