Difference Between Experience and Youth
The one-day series between Australia and hosts West Indies will feature seven matches of exhilarating and keen cricket between two teams, one at the peak of its powers and the other struggling to stay afloat in the international arena.
Australia was unbeaten throughout the World Cup, winning their 10 matches with relative ease, excepting their nail-biting episode against England in the early rounds while the West Indies, betrayed by lack of flexibility in their team selection and captaincy, went out after the Group stage.
Taking a look at the line-ups of both teams, nothing has changed in the interim ? Australia have chosen the same team from the World Cup while the West Indies have selected a bunch of novices to combat the world's best.
Leading the way for Australia is their prolific captain Ricky Ponting, with the swashbuckling opener Adam Gilchrist as his deputy, while influential middle-order batsman Michael Bevan and pacer Glenn McGrath are the other players in the 15-man squad with over 150 one-day internationals under their belt.
Other Aussies with a minimum of 40 caps are Andy Bichel, Jason Gillespie, Ian Harvey, Matthew Hayden, Brett Lee, Darren Lehmann and Andrew Symonds, leaving Brad Hogg (25), Jimmy Maher (21), Nathan Hauritz (five) and Michael Clarke (one) as the only players with a limited amount of experience at this level.
In comparison, the West Indies will field a team with only captain Brian Lara, wicketkeeper Ridley Jacobs and possessing a record of over 100 internationals.
Chanderpaul's finger injury has ruled him out of the entire rubber and pacer Jermaine Lawson, under investigation over a suspect bowling action, is struggling with a sore back.
To say the team is inexperienced is an understatement. It is also a change from the 30-member team provisional squad named by the selectors for the recent World Cup.
Devon Smith, David Bernard, Ryan Hurley, Omari Banks and Tino Best will feature in their first one-day internationals at the expense of Wavell Hinds, Ryan Hinds, Gareth Breese, Mahendra Nagamootoo and Pedro Collins, players used during the past year but seemingly dumped after a string of inconsistent returns.
Wavell Hinds versatility at the top of the order or the middle, his excellent fielding and useful medium pace will be missed as Smith will be unable to fill that breach.
With a team trying to find its own identity, it is shocking that an individual such as Hurley will get the nod over Breese as one of five off-spinning allrounders on the squad. Adjudged the best fieldsman in the Carib Beer Cricket Series, it is food for though that Hurley was sent home midway during the WI Under-19 team's tour of Pakistan and Bangladesh in 1995, with Breese as skipper and Gus Logie as coach.
Nagamootoo's quick leg-spin would have been an asset, especially since the off-break bowlers of Banks, Hurley, Ricardo Powell, Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels are basically the same speed.
And who can justify the selection of Best, whose bowling is similar to Patrick Patterson ? fast and foolish?
One can only hope that the Australians run true to form and the West Indies can use the home conditions to good effect during the seven-game series.