On their recent tour to Australia last November/December, the West Indies bowlers suffered numerous injuries. That is not acceptable in any game of cricket, but especially in Test cricket where one’s bowlers are called upon to carry a heavy workload.
This is not light-hearted stuff whereupon a bowler may be called upon to bowl four overs only or ten overs, depending on the length of the game.
Test cricket tests the cricketer’s ability to bowl or bat for hours in addition to giving everything he can while fielding. And this could be over a period of five days, when bowling as many as 30 overs in a day is distinctly possible. The fast bowlers suffer the most from their actions because they put everything into their run-ups of more than 20 yards which would find them pounding their front feet into the turf at the bowling crease, coming down from a height after a powerful back-foot landing.
The fast bowlers who have been injured badly enough to miss a series here and a series there, have weakened WI bowling seriously enough to undermine penetration considerably. And it has been bad enough to make me wonder why, in this day and age, WI bowlers are struggling with fitness issues. Not that bowlers can’t get injured, however, it’s been happening far too often to WI bowlers as compared to others on the international cricket scene.
ormer West Indies fast bowler Sir Andy Roberts says coaching is being made a scapegoat for the team's failures.
Cricket West Indies (CWI) recently appointed Andre Coley as its interim head coach ahead of the team's tour of South Africa next month.
After unfavourable results at the ICC Men's T20 World Cup late last year, CWI did an internal investigation of the team's performance. Phil Simmons then announced he would resign from the role after a tour of Australia, which also produced poor results.
The Windies team has had frequent coaching changes in the last two decades in response to poor results, a trend similar to other sporting teams, especially football. But critics of this say that cricket is different from other sports in nature, and coaches do not have the same impact on tactics.
"That's exactly what they're doing," Roberts told the Jamaica Observer in response to whether coaches are being used as a scapegoat for bad results. "They have someone to blame, they're blaming the coaches. How come we didn't make five changes for the one-day international (ODI) team? We lost 2-0 in Australia; how come we didn't make five changes to the Test team?
EXPERIENCED leg spinner Imran Khan, 38, who was in his rookie season the last time the TT Red Force copped the regional four-day title way back in 2005/2006, is hungry for another crown before he decides to hang up his boots.
Khan is preparing for the 2023 West Indies Four-Day Championships which bowls off in early February. Khan has been a consistent wicket-taker throughout his career grabbing 437 wickets in 109 First Class matches. He has batted in many positions in the line-up including opening the batting. The right-hander has scored 3,492 runs with one century and 14 half centuries at an average of 21.03.
Khan was one of the youngsters in the Red Force team which won the 2005/2006 Carib Beer Cup captained by Daren Ganga. Dwayne Bravo, Lendl Simmons, Denesh Ramdin and Samuel Badree were among those in the squad. Legendary West Indies batsman Brian Lara also represented TT that season.
“It has been a bit up and down (during my career). I am still motivated to play for West Indies, but I am not thinking about that,” Khan said. “It is just about enjoying my cricket now and trying to help TT cricket as much as I can, especially to win this (four-day) title.”
PRESIDENT OF the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) and Cricket West Indies (CWI) director, Conde Riley, has expressed disappointment that the island will not host any matches in the West Indies Championship for the second straight year despite being the home of the defending champions.
He suggested that the decision demonstrates a lack of vision.
Former opening Test batsman Philo Wallace went further, suggesting that Barbados was “being ostracised”.
Speaking on Mason and Guest radio show on Tuesday, Riley said it was “disappointing” that the country was not selected to host any games, specifically given that Barbados Pride are defending champions and the crowds that usually turn out for games.
Pressed by host Andrew Mason to say who lacked vision, the cricket administrator responded: “Whoever decides on where cricket is being played and the defending champions can’t have one game, two games, I leave it to them.”
The Barbados Cricket Board will host a tri-series tournament to decide their West Indies Championship squad in January.
Shai Hope, Shane Dowrich and Nicholas Kirton will captain the different sides which are named after Sir Charles Griffith, Sir Garfield Sobers and Sir Wes Hall.
The first match is from January 5-7, second is from January 10-12 and the third match is from 15-17. After those three, the Pride squad will play the best remaining players from the series in a four-day practice match from January 21-24.
