Findlays take on West Indies batting techniques
Mon, Sep 6, '21
In reaction to my column last week under the headline: “Techniques of West Indies batsmen debated”, Mike Findlay, the former St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Windward Islands, Combined Islands, and West Indies wicket-keeper, who was also chairman of the West Indies selection committee, had some pertinent written remarks to make in response.
Findlay wrote: “Consider this. The current West Indies team does not have a class batsman. The last such batsman we produced was Brian Lara, who also had support from Shivnarine Chanderpaul. Chanderpaul and Chris Gayle were good batsmen, but they were not in Lara’s class. Chanderpaul was reliable and stable. Gayle was aggressive power. On the other hand, Lara executed his strokes with finesse and elegance. His immense talent and sound technique enabled him to play every stroke in cricket and he did so with much ease and grace.
Any top team in International cricket requires at least three batsmen of the real class who will make runs consistently. If one fails there are at least two others who could be depended on to pull the team back on track.
At the moment, we do not have that quality in the West Indies team. We have a lot of form batsmen who can make runs when they are in good form and they are facing bowling which cannot challenge them by bowling very consistent line and length.
Your assessment that the problem arises from “poor technique” is very accurate. But much deeper than that one has to understand that a sound technique does not come overnight. It has to be part of one’s “DNA”.
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