The Wagon and the Winding Road

It is not as easy as it once was to be West Indies cricket fan. In fact it hurts sometimes.

Those of us in for the long haul have learned to recognise that the turns in the corners are most likely just bends in the road. Even so, it was tempting to get swept up in the enthusiasm generated by the successful seven-game ODI campaign in India.

The stark reality is that little has changed -- our batting is powerful but extremely brittle, our bowling insignificant, our fielding mercurial, and most importantly we do not seem to gel as a team. Since the retirement of Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh, our bowling cupboard has been as bare as old Mother Hubbard's, and we have had to rely on the mediocre Dillon and recycled failures like Pedro Collins and Nixon McLean to contain opposing batsmen. The most recent result of all this was ejection from the World Cup after the first round.

Blame for that particular disaster can be laid in all corners and frequently is. Perhaps if the firebrand pacer Lawson had been played, perhaps if we hadn't adopted the 7-1-3 formula, perhaps if Hooper had made better decisions, perhaps if either of our two senior batsmen had delivered in the all important Sri Lanka game.

Perhaps. Perhaps. Perhaps.

All this ignores the simple fact that this is merely a continuation of a pattern that was established almost a decade ago. Surely if the simple omission of a single bowler or the failure of Carl Hooper at a critical moment or any other single factor can have such an impact then we should be looking deeper to see the real faults. Neither the Caribbean juggernaut of the 1980s nor the current Aussie machine would let a few small details stand in the way of victory. Any professional outfit should be capable of overcoming some obstacles while acheiving their objective.

In a way. the victory over South Africa in the opening match of the competition derailed both teams' aspirations. South Africa went into the tournament cocky, expecting an easy ride to the final with Australia only to be stunned by the powerful West Indian middle order led by Brian Lara. Their confidence shattered, they never recovered.

The result was, however, equally detrimental to the winning side. How easily we ignored the fact that, all in all, it was a shoddy team effort masked by a few outstanding performances. All the signs of a weak team ripe for the picking were right there and a defeat might have made them take that fact a bit more seriously. The West Indies is a collection of players, many of them quite gifted, but it is far from being a team.

Looking to the immediate future, we must soon encounter the mighty Australians, now arguably the greatest cricket team ever to play the game. Anyone who has driven the road to Jolly Harbour in Antigua will know what to expect here. Let's not act surprised when bits fall off -- this wagon is held together with spit and banana leaves.

Even so, there is good reason to stay on the road, rough as it is. There is a strong chance it leads somewhere good. Amongst the wreckage of the World Cup minibus, there emerged some good parts that can become part of a new and better vehicle.

Our little warrior Ramnaresh Sarwan must be counted chief among these. Watching that young man come back from a horrifying blow on the head to take the fight back to the enemy -- and almost succeed at it -- made me proud to be a West Indian. Surely, here is someone who will one day lead the West Indies. It is a shame that Carl Hooper and Shivnarine Chanderpaul will prevent him from learning leadership at the helm of Guyana, while Wavell Hinds, Daren Ganga, and other young players lead their respective countries in the domestics.

The time may soon come when our little warrior must become the general.

And I mean no disrespect to Chanderpaul in this for he too is one of our greatest assets. The past year has seen him realise the potential that made calypsonian Dave Martins write a calypso for him. Here is tempered steel for the new wagon.

No one who saw either of Marlon Samuels' centuries in India can doubt the talent and, perhaps more importantly, the temperment of this young man. While it remains to be seen how his knees hold up, he has a key role to play in the future West Indies team.

Even the bare bowling cupboard might be getting stocked soon. Jermaine Lawson was -- wrongly in the minds of many -- kept out of the side until the final dead rubber against Kenya but in that match he showed what he had shown in India. this lad lad can bowl fast. More importantly he can bowl fast well.

But until we can replace Ridley Jacobs behind and in front of the stumps and, until we can develop a consistent opening pair, and until we can take this collections of parts and build something cohesive and committed, we will always be breaking down in the middle of the road and the fans will be standing by the side of the road with their thumbs out.

The first step on this road is to somehow build a unity in West Indies cricket. I suggest we start it amongst ourselves, rather than engaging in pointless schisms on national and ethnic lines. We reek of insularity and narrowmindedness and the first reaction to any opinion other than our own is to accuse the other of this. The one thing we all have in common is our cricket and we must be willing to, as one longtime West Indies cricket fan is fond of saying, let a thousand flowers bloom.

We can all be nationalists when the domestics are under way, but when our boys put on the maroon caps and go out to take on the world we must put that aside and become a West Indian nation. Maybe then they will do so as well.

It is a long and winding road, it is full of bumps and bends, and it is most certainly not an easy road. But it's the road I will trod.