No excuse for sloppy Windies fielding

WEST INDIES interim coach Eldine Baptiste should endeavour to get his hands on a copy of the 1954 Wisden.

As he couldn’t contain his frustration at the five dropped catches, one missed run out and overall fielding repeatedly referred to as “sloppy” by the television commentators as Sri Lanka amassed 484 in the first Test in Galle, his first in charge, Baptiste, the suspended Phil Simmons and coaches at every level in the Caribbean should find the Wisden report on South Africa’s 1952-53 tour of Australia instructive.

It would be simplistic to expect the West Indies to emulate the South African example of more than half-century ago in every detail but there are enough similarities to make it a useful template for those responsible for contemporary West Indies teams.

The gloomy predictions that preceded the South Africans as they set out for Australia resonate with the current West Indies. There are no signs they can yet match the remarkable South African story of confounding the doubters by sharing the series 2-2 with opponents manned by basically the same players who had seen off the West Indies 4-1 a year earlier.

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