The biggest challenge for West Indies cricket, especially our senior men, is to try to be relevant for 2014. After embarrassingly dismal tours of India and New Zealand 2013/2014, that is a very big task!We should also focus more on the women's senior team, led by Ms Marissa Aguilera, as they, despite not being given the visibility as the senior men, have kept WI pride up and flags flying.New Year 2014 clicked over, but nothing changed for WI's men in NZ. For ODI No. 3, they must have had an excuse, that they supped too much of celebratory fare. ODI No. 4's bowling was nearly as bad too! Having previously suggested that WI had set a new low in Tests in NZ, our ambassadors have under-done themselves with another absolutely atrocious effort; January 1, 2014, no less; even beneath that previously imagined, losing terribly, a real no-contest, really, ODI No. 3.50-overs and T-20's, emphasis on the latter, are formats that West Indies revel in, but they were badly beaten in a game of only 21 overs, almost a regular T-20 game, by a mammoth 159 runs! What the hell has happened to our team in NZ anyway? One cannot rebuild on regular utter shambles!
So, can anyone tell me why, in God's name, does the entire WI squad in NZ; players, coaches, selectors all; not just do like Darren Bravo, even at this very late stage, and simply abandon this wretched tour? WI were fully marooned at Queenstown, and should have flown the white surrender flag, then immediately boarded an Airbus A-380 or Boeing 777, flying straight back to the Caribbean.This voyage started as a welcomed inclusion to celebrate Sachin Tendulkar's international departure. It has turned into a shambolic, gutless, blood-letting rout of WI cricket as has never before seen.Nothing positive can come of this dastardly twin-tour that has featured India and New Zealand anymore. Real supporters will know why the abandonment would have occurred–inadequacy and uselessness. Without prejudice, West Indies' grave is deeper now than ever before, the team getting even worse!Anyway, recently, there was an entertaining spectacle during England v Australia, Test No. 4, MCG, when former Aussie pacer Brett Lee bowled at, and rightly roughed up, CNN's talk show host Piers Morgan, who, being English, hoped to see England win a Test in Australia. Morgan, like some blindfolded WI supporters, is also dreaming!So, here is another challenge, and I would not even have to train hard to achieve this.I am nearly 61 years old, still in pretty good shape, and I would challenge any world team's batsmen, from Chris Gayle to new world-record holder for quickest ODI hundred, NZ's Corey Anderson, to hit me now, not when I played back when, but right now, for 64 runs in three overs; 18 legal deliveries!Present WI bowlers are aged between 22 and 31 years old, supposedly in the prime of natural and especially cricketing life. Yet, never has a set of young, supposedly intelligent cricketers looked so lost!Have you ever seen such ruthless carnage as in ODI No. 3? Ravi Rampaul–3 overs for 64 runs; Sunil Narine–4 overs for 50 runs; Jason Holder–4 overs for 48 runs; Nakita Miller– 4 overs for 44 runs; Dwayne Bravo–4 overs for 48 runs; Lendl Simmons–2 overs for 29, or Tino Best, in ODI No. 4–9 overs for 70 runs?
What were they bowling? Sweet-corn soup?
In ODI No. 3, NZ made 227 runs in the last 16 overs, nearly 15 runs per over; outright cricketing murder! What exactly are they learning from, or indeed being taught by, the obviously very poor coaching team? Is it all blah-blah, bravado and brawn, but, with results in ODI's No. 3 and No. 4, no real thinking brains?In no game that I played in my senior Guyana, Lancashire CCC, or WI career; 1972 to 1983; can I remember all, not just some, or one, but all of the bowlers being so badly shellacked. At least one bowler would have been as tight as a drum–normally, for West Indies, Joel "Big Bird" Garner–and quite proud to be so. None of the present WI bowlers were even vaguely frugal in ODI No. 3! Bravo and Coach Ottis Gibson talk great games. The captain even suggested that "West Indies was caught cold" after that hammering. This, after he had suggested that "our bowlers give us the edge!" Really?Bravo must have been talking about the weather, but most should have been acclimatised by now, having been in NZ for some time. The greatness has all come from only NZ's players! All these guys do is wholesome, babbling cheer-leading, with no positive results to follow! With West Indies cricket season 2014 starting at January's end, with the 50-overs regional competition, most places in the men's senior team are up for grabs.
Go for broke, you young non-internationals.Enjoy!