By George H. Whyte From Caribbean Life

The breakdown of West Indies Cricket continues as England go 1 – 0 in three scheduled Test matches. The first Test match was drawn in Antigua and England won the second Test in Grenada. The third and final Test match is set for the Kensington Oval, Barbados.

The West Indies Cricket team lacks credibility and that blame should only fall on the cricketers because of their lousy performance. Consistency is a major factor in winning. There are too many failures with West Indies batsmen and those who are in batting form are carelessly giving their wickets away.

In contrast to the West Indies, the English Team has been playing as a unit and their players, particularly their batsmen, have stuck to their game and have played match winning innings. The batsmen include Joe Root, Ian Bell, Gary Balance and their captain Alastair Cook, who finally stroked two half centuries in the second Test in Grenada.

For the West Indies, Marlon Samuels, Kraig Braithwaite, Jason Holder and Jermaine Blackwood scored centuries but these were insufficient to enable the team to win. West Indies bowling seems to be very thin and Denesh Ramdin’s captaincy and his batting leave much to be desired. West Indies batsmen are not intelligently accessing their game and applying the correct strategy to win.

ANALYSIS OF THE PLAYERS

Kraig Braithwaite is a confident player but he needs to learn quickly how to play the rising ball and negotiate much more singles at the wicket. Devon Smith is very solid against the pace attack but he looses concentration too quickly. He needs much more movement with his feet, particularly against the spin. Darren Bravo is potentially classy. He is too overrated and too many cricket pundits expect too much from him batting in the number three position. He functions better in the number five slot.

Marlon Samuels is a superb cricketer but he should not be exposed to too much bowling in Test cricket. His batting should be a priority. Jermaine Blackwood is a fine fielder and attacking batsman and he has a great future with the West Indies team. Shivnarine Chanderpaul has been a fine player over the years but he must call it a day and resign with dignity. His significant contribution to West Indies cricket will always be remembered.

As a wicket keeper Denesh Ramdin has done a reasonably good job but as a captain and batsman his performance has been very poor. He is not a motivator and his batting must improve greatly to boost the efforts of the team.

IMAGE: Associated Press / Ricardo Mazalan West Indies’ Jermaine Blackwood plays a shot from the bowling of Moeen Ali under the look of England’s keeper Jos Buttler during day one of their second Test match at the National Stadium in St. George’s, Grenada, Tuesday, April 21, 2015.

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