Busta Cup-ful of woe
Rudi Webster would no doubt find some way to put a positive spin on it but the returns from the current Busta Cup are desperate enough to test even his psychological ingenuity
Tony Cozier
06-Feb-2000
Rudi Webster would no doubt find some way to put a positive spin
on it but the returns from the current Busta Cup are desperate
enough to test even his psychological ingenuity.
Every day produces statistics to heighten pessimism over the
present and future of West Indies cricket. They principally
concern the batting, the game's most fundamental element, and
they are all the more glaring, set against the legacy left by the
several greats of the past, distant and recent.
The decline in the standards are starkly evident in comparison
with the tournaments of ten and 20 years ago.
As of close of play on Friday, the average total in the
tournament was a meagre 219, almost identical to what it was last
season (217). In the Red Stripe Cup of 1990 the average was 301,
virtually the same as what it had been in the Shell Shield of
1980 (304).
In the first 14 matches this season, there were only six
individual hundreds, four by players who had already represented
the West Indies at Test or One-Day International level. Only two
totals were better than 300 (the highest the Leewards' second
innings 398 for eight against the Windwards that followed a first
innings 85 all out). Nine were less than 150.
Generally, it has been tortured work even raising such sparse
returns. On Friday, the Windwards spent 103 overs over their allout 187 against Guyana and Jamaica needed 75 overs to crawl to
their 153 for nine against the Leewards.
The Busta Cup, of course, provides the grounding for the Test
team. The recent debacles across the globe, difficult as they
have been to stomach, should, therefore, not have come as a
surprise.
Nor are the portents encouraging. The Test players just back from
New Zealand have been enveloped in the malaise just as much as
those we hoped would challenge for their tenuous places.
There has been one, if only one, bright spark to lighten the
gloom.
Chris Gayle, the 20-year-old left-hander, has carried his
consistency with him from Jamaican club cricket which he so
dominated last year.
His heavy-footed method has been questioned but that should, and
can, be corrected with coaching and practice. It is his mental
strength that is most impressive, an asset as critical in any
sport as technique and noticeably lacking in West Indies teams of
late.
Gayle's was first evident when he batted through the 50 overs to
score 141 out of 243 for eight in the Youth World Cup Plate final
against Bangladesh two years ago. So it has been in what is only
his second season of first-class cricket.
Others who showed similar early promise have not made a similar
advance. Ramnaresh Sarwan and Sylvester Joseph, both identified
in their mid-teens as future Test batsmen, still look the
business but have shown neither the consistency nor the ability
to build sizeable innings at the higher level.
Runako Morton, another young batsman with obvious natural talent,
played two innings against Barbados of 54 and 70 not out,
spanning 41/4 hours, that hinted at a hopeful, if belated,
maturity.
It seemed a significant breakthrough. It was, in fact, a flash in
the pan as he has followed with scores of 10, 25, 6 and 3.
Ricardo Powell is another of the young brigade who has class
written all over him. Ryan Hinds, Marlon Samuels and Neosingh
Deonarine are graduates from the Under-19 team with the potential
for future development.
These are the ones to whom the West Indies must turn in the
future but their ability needs to be harnessed through long hours
of practice and preparation.