Good luck, Chadwick Walton

Sun, Oct 13, '13 by TONY BECCA

The West Indies team, bidding to recover its former glory in Test cricket and ODI cricket, begin a series against India shortly, and although it will be one of only two Test matches and three ODIs, it will be a series which will throw some light as to where they are at in two versions of the game.

Once the champions of the world in Tests and ODI, the West Indies are currently ranked number five and number eight respectively in the two versions, and, despite winning the World Twenty20 Cup, they are ranked number four in the Twenty20 version of the game.

And although that is better than it was a few years ago when they were ranked just above Zimbabwe and Bangladesh in both Test and ODI rankings, there is still a far way to go, or so it seems, to cross swords with the likes of South Africa, England, Australia, and India.

Cricket is such a game, however, that two or three batsmen, and two or three bowlers backed up by good if not brilliant fielding, can, sometimes, make the difference between winning and losing.

In Christopher Gayle, if he can again find his footing in the Test arena, in Shivnarine Chanderpaul, if he can keep on going, and in Marlon Samuels, the West Indies do have three quality batsmen, plus a really promising one in Darren Bravo.