How West Indies lose the plot overseas

When West Indies won back the Wisden Trophy earlier this year, there was plenty of euphoria in the Caribbean about how the team were on their way to regaining their lost glory of yesteryear. One Test match into their return leg in England, and it seems talk of their resurgence has been wildly exaggerated.

It wasn't just that they lost; the manner in which they capitulated - they were bowled out in less than 33 overs in their first innings - was particularly galling. Since then, there has been talk of their captain not being interested in the job, or even the format of the game, and all the progress made over the last few months seems to have evaporated.

Over the last 12 years, though, this story has been played out more than once, which suggests it's always wise to wait for West Indies to perform overseas before making pronouncements about their improvement. During this 12-year period, West Indies have had a woeful track record when playing against meaningful opposition away from home. In 57 overseas Tests excluding those in Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, they've lost 47 and won only two. During the same period, their home record has been far better - they've played the same number of Tests, 57, but have won 15 and lost 20.

As the table below indicates, their overseas record is worse than all other major teams, and even Zimbabwe have managed a slightly better win-loss ratio during this period.

At Lord's this time, the batting and fielding were the aspects that let them down, but over 12 years both batting and bowling have contributed almost equally to their pathetic away record. West Indies' batsmen average almost 30 with the bat at home but only 23.44 overseas, while the bowling averages suffer similarly - 35 at home and more than 42 away.

Among the reasons to be embarrassed for West Indies was the manner in which they crumbled in the first innings: a mere 32.3 overs was all it took England to bowl them out, which is only slightly more than a third of a full day's action. During this period West Indies batted like millionaires, though, scoring at more than four-and-a-half runs per over, as if making a statement that the entire team - and not just the captain - prefers the limited-overs format.

In these 12 years, it was the eighth time they'd been bowled out in less than 40 overs when playing abroad. As the table below indicates, many of those sorry moments have come in England - it was the fifth such instance there and the second at Lord's. On the tour in 2000 West Indies suffered that fate twice, and it happened once each on their last two tours to the country, in 2004 and 2007. The other country that exposes West Indian batsmen is South Africa: in fact, they were bowled out in less than 40 overs twice in the same Test in 1998.

One of the reasons for the poor performances is the form of the batsmen - they've been significantly below par when they travel. Brian Lara, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan all perform much better in familiar home territory. Lara and Chanderpaul have respectable averages overseas too, but for Sarwan it drops to a mediocre 31.33, which is far below what you'd expect for a batsman of his class.

Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels are among the few batsmen who have better averages overseas than at home, but neither has extraordinary overseas numbers. Samuels, especially, has fared so poorly at home that his away stats are respectable in comparison.

The story is similar with most of the bowlers - the home performances vary from the excellent to the passable, while away performances are mostly mediocre. The notable exceptions are Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose, but the numbers for the more recent crop are uniformly woeful. Corey Collymore has an outstanding home record, taking 48 wickets in 13 matches at 22.79, but his average almost doubles when bowling away. It's a similar story for Fidel Edwards and Jerome Taylor, the two main men in the current attack, though Edwards showed at Lord's that he's learning the art of performing away from home.

Dwayne Bravo is the one bowler among the current crop who has good numbers overseas - and there is no knowing how effective his seam and swing would have been in favourable conditions at Lord's - but he has been busy doing duty for Mumbai in the IPL instead of turning up for West Indies. And Daren Powell has a similar difference between home and away averages, but that's only a commentary on how pedestrian he has been at home.