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.

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.