Clive Lloyd's brave new world of youth, alternatively the post-Chanderpaul era, is off to a rocky start.

Realising from his previous six Test matches that Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the most experienced, most dependable and, significantly, oldest of modern-day batsmen, had come to the end of his remarkable 21-year career, West Indies' chief selector Lloyd, with head coach Phil Simmons by his side, set out the plan for the future leading into the two Tests against Australia.

"Our aim is to continue to play our young players to give them exposure, and you can't get better exposure than playing against one of the best teams in the world," he said. "They will be tested and that is what it's all about."

As Australia completed their victory in Dominica by nine wickets before the end of the third day on Friday, Lloyd could identify his newest selection, the 23-year-old debutant Shane Dowrich, as an example of his expectations. Dowrich's level-headed defiance for 70, stretched over four hours as West Indies battled to remain in contention, was a model to others, already seasoned in the demands of Test cricket, who didn't measure up.

In reply to CaribbeanCricket.com

While I agree that it is time to look to Youth, Cozier ONLY feels this way because Lloyd and his yes men of selectors are only seeing Bajan youths. There are no worthy 'youths' any where else in the Caribbean and that suits the insular Cozier.

Play the same team unless Roach is getting back near his best and/or Bishoo is injured.

In reply to CaribbeanCricket.com

The well respected Tony Cozier must stop his hypocrisy by trying to promote the Agenda of Clive Lloyd. Cozier is double standard and needs to understand that this is the information age and the information is out their for all to see. First of all, dropping Chanderpaul because of age 41, and poor form CANNOT be good for West Indies cricket. Shiv is by far the best batsman in the Caribbean and should never be dropped. Clive Lloyd was 41, when he voluntarily retired, and had scores of 33 & 41 in his last test match against Australia, which proves that at 41, one's career is not altogether over. Furthermore, when he retired we were the best team in world cricket and had some bright young players that had already made an impact to throughout the world. That is not the case today as everything is the opposite of where we were when Lloyd exited.

At no time in recent years, did we ever have an all young team representing west indies apart from Lloyd himself led our senior players to play for Kerry Parker and later when our senior players were on strike. When Viv Richards made his debut in 1974, he was surrounded by senior players like Fredricks, Greenidge, Kalicaran, Lloyd himself, Gibbs, Murray and others. So Richards had some big brothers to turn to.

The team that played last week only had Samuels to look to, and he himself needs some big brothers around him. Dropping Shiv was just pure madness and Lloyd should be fired forthwith

The issue with the last Test was, the pitch was challenging to bat on. The bounce was uneven and it was spinning a lot on the first day. Even the top batsmen for Australia had a challenging time batting on it. Hopefully in the next Test the pitch is more friendly to batting.

Persisting with Youth , without Harnessing ; Enhancing & Honing their Talents is an Exercise in Futility .

So also is refusing to take into account the following :

THE STANDARD OF CRICKET IN THE REGION

IS BELOW WHAT IS REQUIRED IN

INTERNATIONAL CRICKET THIS MUST BE

FIXED TO BE FULLY COMPETITIVE .


Our Players need to play much more matches in the longer versions of the game than they are currently playing .

Failure to address these issues will
hamper the Standard & competitiveness Our Players .

These Issues were not brought to the table by the Author of this Article , and I am not surprised by that fact .

In reply to dayne
What did you smoke?
6/8/15 11:36:28 AM


The issue with the last Test was, the pitch was challenging to bat on. The bounce was uneven and it was spinning a lot on the first day. Even the top batsmen for Australia had a challenging time batting on it.

The wicket was a perfect test cricket wicket. Their was something in it for the quicks, spinners and batsmen that decided to bas. It was a wicket where test debutant Adam Voges scored 130 not out in the first inning, leg spinner Bishoo grabbed six wickets, Pacers Johnson and Hazelwood grabbed three scalps each, in the 1st inning. In the 2nd inning our debutant Dowrich got a well played 70, Samuels sored 74 in a partnership of over 140 and Stark got 4 wts. So we saw good batting, good fast bowling, and good leg spin bowling. You blame the wicket and hope the JA wicket will be conducive to batting? This is not a One Day wicket, it's test cricket and the wicket was one of the best test wicket I have seen in the Caribbean in a number of years.

You just need to swallow your pride and say that we did not have a test team to face Australia and dropping Chanderpaul who has an average of over 50, in test and 96. in Dominica was a psychological defeat for the home team.