West Indies - Confidence in the youth

The West Indies selectors announced a very young and inexperienced cricket squad this past Monday to tour Australia this winter. The squad will be once again be lead by the unflappable Jamaican, Jimmy Adams and vice-captained by the ever-improving Sherwin Campbell.

The side is a bold statement by the West Indian selectors who have picked three uncapped test players in the exciting pace bowlers of Kerry Jeremy from Antigua, Marlon Black from Trinidad and Colin Stuart from Guyana. Jeremy, who is the leading wicket taker so far in this years Red Stripe Bowl, is the youngest of the pacers at the tender age of 20 while Black is 25 and Stuart is 27 and ripening into a decent `quickie' as he continues to impress. Courtney Walsh, the old workhorse, has decided to give it one last crack. Or is it his last series? Despite the fact that he soon will be 38 many West Indian fans will be seriously pleased that the `old boy' of West Indian cricket is fighting on in Ambrose's absence.

Nixon McLean and the resurgent Mervyn Dillon finish up the list of five fast bowlers. Both have proved that they are formidable on their day but still lack that consistency that is necessary for test cricket. McLean looked in good form in the early rounds of the Red Stripe Bowl and recently claimed 5 wickets in an innings against the Leewards. Dillon on the other hand was one of the few bright spots of the dismal West Indies tour of England as he bowled brilliantly in the shortened format of the game and many questions were asked why he was not asked to stay on to join the test team. The spinning star, Mahendra Nagamootoo is the lone true spinner in the squad of 16. He impressed throughout the entire summer in England and also scored many runs in the county matches despite playing only one test. He looked in good form, similar to McLean, in the recent rounds of the Red Stripe Bowl as he had some 9 wickets at an average of 11.55 from the first 4 matches.

The batting will be lead by the enigmatic Brian Lara who, despite recent lapses in form, is still one of the best batsmen ever to grace a cricket field. In contrast, Jimmy Adams will provide the resoluteness and fighting determination that our batting so lacks. The openers are Sherwin Campbell who has once gain proved his worth in England and continues to average close to 40 in test cricket. His newly found partner will be the young Trinidadian Darren Ganga. Ganga has been groomed as the next West Indian opener from his youth cricket days and boasts one of the best techniques in the Caribbean. Speaking of classical techniques, Ramnaresh Sarwan, will no doubt bolster the West Indian batting as he so proved in the recently concluded tour of England. He topped the batting averages and at the tender age of 20 he is a blooming and exciting prospect. Shivnarine Chanderpaul is back from injury and hopefully, from a Windies point of view, he can regain that brilliant form of 1997. Wavell Hinds, the young Jamaican, is another exciting prospect who had a dream series debut against the likes of Zimbabwe and Pakistan but struggled somewhat in England. He was very unlucky on the recent tour of England as a series of bad decisions in the first couple of test lead to a run of poor form.

The keepers are the gritty Ridley Jacobs, who no doubt will do the majority of the work in the international matches and the veteran Courtney Browne who has clambered his way back to the highest level after poor showings on previous attempts.

It seems that with Reon King out injured with a stress fracture that the bowling attack may be a little inexperience. It is noticeable, however, that his counterpart, fast bowler Franklyn Rose has not been asked to tour Australia. In addition to poor form in England, Rose has had his discipline problems and it seems that his days representing his country at the highest level may be numbered. Young batsmen, Christopher Gayle has also been omitted and it seems that the selectors are accepting no form of indiscipline whatsoever. As reports would have it, Rose and Gayle are not the best behaved of boys.

No doubt it is a tough and grueling task that lies ahead of Adams' men but no doubt, after such terrible disappointments and a recent away record of 1 win and 13 losses, our `new look' West Indies will give it their all. It must be excepted that with such an inexperienced bowling attack that future disappointments are still lurking, especially against the likes of the Waugh twins, Justin Langer, Michael Slater, Greg Blewett, Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist. However, the future remains bright and in a few years the harvests of such confidence in our youth will no doubt be reaped in order that the West Indies can once again roam at the top of world cricket.