Shell-shocked Windies worried of whitewash? (14 December 1998)

14 December 1998

Shell-shocked Windies worried of whitewash?

From Tony Cozier in Port Elizabeth

While Brian Lara and his shell-shocked colleagues remained behind locked dressing room doors at St George's Park on Saturday evening, agitating over their crushing defeat in the Second Test, buoyant South Africans outside were repeatedly using the word "whitewash", an especially relevant term in view of the current national debate over the racial composition of their team.

The prospect is upsetting but not at all far-fetched. While Lara spoke about "digging deep" and pointed out that the equation of two down with three to go still presents "an outside chance of us winning and a more than outside chance of us levelling the series", South Africa's captain Hansie Cronje identified how difficult it will be for the West Indies.

Asked how worried he would be if he was in Lara's shoes, Cronje replied: "I think it's going to be very hard to stay positive about the mistakes they are making". His rider was that there is "a very good chance" that there will be results in all five Tests, a hint that, yes, 5-0 is in his thoughts.

The gap between the teams in terms of discipline, commitment and mental attitude is so great that it would require an extraordinary reversal to bridge it. Not that it makes it any easier to deal with but it is nothing new. The West Indies have gone through the same trauma time and again in recent times and the causes remain the same and deep-rooted.

In the 1996 World Cup, in Australia in 1996-97 and in Pakistan a year ago, the same indifferent approach shamed the hallowed name of West Indies cricket. The captains (Richie Richardson and Courtney Walsh), the coach (Andy Roberts), the manager (Wes Hall), the selectors and the Board president all paid for the debacles with their positions. In the absence of worthwhile replacements, the players kept theirs.

The platitudes have been repeated over and over with no effect.

Here is just one: "If you're playing Test cricket, you've got to be able to play at the highest standard. You've got to have discipline and pride in doing so and I think we lost quite a bit of that in the last few days".

The comment was Clive Lloyd's, the place Pakistan and the time November last year after the innings defeat in the First Test of what would be a 3-0 thrashing. It could just as well have been made-and probably was-after the latest debacle here.

Here is another: "If you are beaten by a better team and you have given 100 per cent, you can hold your heads up high. But we have not given 100 per cent". The speaker was Brian Lara here Saturday night. We could have been rewinding the tape to Richardson in 1996 or Walsh in 1997.

So Lara has quickly found himself in the same predicament as his pilloried predecessors. It is a unique and chastening experience. The euphoria of the home triumphs over England in his first series as captain has evaporated in the space of a month. The same temperamental and technical frailties exposed in the last World Cup, in Australia two seasons back and in Pakistan last year have returned to haunt him on a tour that carries as much social and political significance as it does cricket.

The situation is made no easier by the backdrop of the players' sit down strike in London that placed the tour in doubt and in which Lara's position as captain was a central issue.

Now he and his senior players have the daunting task of convincing everyone in the team that all is not lost, that they are the equal of their opponents. The difficult part is making it all sink in.

Source :: The Trinidad Express (https://www.trinidad.net/express/)