Congratulations to the Australians on their series 'whitewash' of the West Indies a week ago. The visitors retained the Sir Frank Worrell series with a resounding nine-wicket win in the opening match of the tournament in Dominica and then took away a 257-run win in the second match at Sabina Park in Jamaica.
The man of the series was fast bowler Josh Hazlewood, who came to the Caribbean desperate to do well in white clothes because Australia at this moment has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to fast bowling.
It came as no surprise to me he was named player of the series because from very early on you could have seen the burning desire from the New South Wales player to mark his spot on the Aussie team.
His preparation for success started way before the series in the Caribbean. Retained by the Mumbai Indians on a US$100,000 contract for the 2015 season after being bought in the 2014 auction, Hazlewood was not with Ricky Ponting's team for their match-winning IPL season.
After a gruelling summer, Hazlewood and Cricket Australia (CA) opted to withdraw the fast bowler from the lucrative tournament with a packed winter schedule on the horizon.
The West Indies tour and the ultimate for him, the Ashes, were up next.
Hazlewood packed his bags and headed to Brisbane where he worked tirelessly at the High Performance Centre located at the Allan Border playing field. I remembered during the Test series asking him what he went to the HPC to achieve the most? His response was that he needed to up the number of overs he had bowled in an effort to get consistency with his art.
Losing out on the IPL was not a big deal for him as he put country first. He decided to represent Australia and came here and conquered. I observed him at close quarters during the series and the humble young man was always quick to say that it was all about learning for him. He showed tremendous respect to his teammates and opposition and also said he was a student of the game and wanted to get into the history of cricket. I then looked at our players who didn't achieve anything close to what Hazlewood did in the series but they were still walking all over the place like if they were champions. Our players are contented with average performances and sending messages as if they were something great.
I listened to Mark Waugh during the first Test and he said that he was shocked that Marlon Samuels was not playing the match for the West Indies. He said that to not play for the West Indies, you have to be really, really sick.
Samuels called in sick for the final match and did not participate yet you could have seen the Jamaican taking a knock every morning during the match. He looked in not much discomfort while batting but still did not see it fit to go out there and fight for his team, as they were looking to save a series.
One would have admired him a lot for going out there and playing for the West Indies no matter what, as they were still in with a chance of sharing the spoils in the series, when their plane touched down in Jamaica. Where is the fight? I no longer see it and one hopes that the young players coming though adopt a different approach.
I have written tirelessly that the West Indies team is a mirror of the Caribbean society. If we continue to don't infuse a different team environment then we can never get the results that we so longed for and dream about.
I would like to see the young men on the West Indies team try to emulate Jason Holder in all aspects of his life, especially how he carries himself off the field. A number of talented players have played for the West Indies team before and did more harm than good for the team with their prima donna attitude.
Holder comes across to me as a man who is still in love with West Indianism and wants to make the people of the Caribbean proud. Not an ounce of ego in the young man, yet some players who have achieved much less than him, have an attitude like: "Hey look at me, I am the boss." Well I can tell you something–during the World Cup in Australia earlier this year some of our players were made the laughing stock of the tournament without even knowing. The Aussie public had a good laugh observing their 'big man' movements when they were much less than that when the umpires called play.
We need to improve leaps and bounds to get back that respect in the world of cricket and those of you who are waiting to see that happen soon, I hope you have WiFi to kill the time because it will be very long in coming.