Support the West Indies team, says Easton McMorris (16 December 1998)

16 December 1998

Support the West Indies team, says Easton McMorris

Versel Thompson

Former West Indies and Jamaica opening batsman Easton McMorris has called on the people of the region to give their full support to the West Indies team after their humiliating defeats in the first two Test matches by South Africa.

"We have to stick with the fellows and just hope that they can get it right in the third Test," McMorris said yesterday.

"They (West Indies) have hit rock-bottom and it is now that they need the full support of the West Indian people and we must now let them know that we are with them 100 per cent," he said.

McMorris, who said the West Indies players' morale seemed low, described their recent batting as "woeful".

"They played terrible cricket, they were not chasing 320 runs," he said. "They had nearly three days in which to get those runs and it was not necessary to turn ones into twos resulting in two run outs involving Carl Hooper and Nixon McLean and also near misses with Chanderpaul and Lara.

"It seems that we are not talking enough cricket and are not planning our cricket strategies very well. Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose are still our best bowlers but they are lacking support from the younger pace bowlers who, it seems, don't have the stamina to perform at this level and look out of their depth," McMorris said.

Former stylish right-handed Jamaica wicketkeeper/batsman Renford Pinnock said the batsmen were playing without purpose against the South Africans.

"Our top three batsmen should account for 250 of the runs between them and by the time we lose five wickets, we should have enough runs to win, but the West Indies batsmen did not bat with any purpose against the South Africans, they were not selective enough with their shots and have shown an intelligence seemingly below the level of Test cricket," Pinnock said.

Source :: The Jamaica Gleaner (https://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/)