What has happened to the art of batting? (27 January 1999)

27 January 1999

What has happened to the art of batting?

Tony Becca

Jamaica's performance against Guyana was disappointing and, as usual, cricket fans are finding all kinds of excuses for the defeat.

For a start, they are blaming captain James Adams, the selectors and Robert Samuels.

The fans are blaming Adams because he should not have Christopher Gayle batting as low as number six, because his bad call led to the run out of Leon Garrick and probably because the fast bowler got the final wicket in Guyana's second innings with his first delivery, because he waited too long to introduce Dwight Mais on the final morning.

The fans are blaming the selectors because they did not include batsmen Carl Wright and Ricardo Powell in the team and they are blaming Samuels because he failed.

Apart from the dropped catches, however, Jamaica's embarrassing loss to a team short of five players was because their batting was pathetic. That is the truth and nothing but the truth.

On a pitch which, despite the bounce and the turn which favoured the bowlers, was far from devilish, Jamaica's batsmen were unable to cope - partly because of poor technique, partly because they lack the capacity to perform against reasonable bowling on pitches which are not tailor-made for batting and in pressure situations.

Jamaica's batsmen have lost the art of batting and the sooner those who are calling for the return of some and anointing of others realise that the better it will be for Jamaica's cricket and eventually for West Indies cricket.

Samuels, as an experienced player, must, without a doubt, share some of the blame for the defeat and so too the even more experienced and accomplished Adams who blocked and pushed against ordinary spin bowlers like Gavin Nedd and Mahendra Nagamootoo and kept the pressure on his team.

There were four other specialist batsmen on the team, however, and apart from Garrick, none of them, not Tony Powell not Wavell Hinds and not Gayle were able to cope, and regardless of who believes it, neither Wright nor Ricardo Powell, certainly at this stage, are as good as any of them. Nedd and Nagamootoo would have cut them down as easily as they did those who were selected.

All that glitters is not gold and while so many of Jamaica's batsmen, including the so-called allrounders, Nehemiah Perry, Laurie Williams and Brian Murphy, possess some lovely strokes, while they are good against the mediocre bowling of club cricket in this country, while, on their day, they will come up with a good innings, batting is more than that.

Batting is the ability, not only to reel of a few brilliant strokes, but to select when to play those strokes, to bat long, to produce consistently and to be able to deal with tight situations - be it good bowling, a difficult pitch or the pressure brought about by the state of a match.

Batting is an art.

The real concern, as far as West Indies cricket is concerned, is that Jamaica is no different from the rest of the Caribbean. The art is disappearing everywhere - to the point where a batsman who scores a few runs or punches a half-volley through the covers is lauded as the 'next in line', to the extent that one wonders what the next generation of West Indies batsmen will be like.

Because of what happened in South Africa where the weaknesses, technical or otherwise, of batsmen like Clayton Lambert, Philo Wallace, Stuart Williams and Floyd Reifer were exposed, changes are necessary against Australia.

Apart from the return of one like Sherwin Campbell at the top of the order, however, or Adams in the middle, it will be change for change sake with the selectors hoping for rather than expecting good performances - as they did in days gone by when, apart from Gary Sobers who came in as a slow left-arm bowler, young batsmen like Collie Smith, Rohan Kanhai, Maurice Foster, Lawrence Rowe, Alvin Kallicharran, Viv Richards, Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes, Richie Richardson, Brian Lara and Carl Hooper were selected.

In the two Busta Cup matches played at Sabina Park, the only batsman who really looked the part was Ramnaresh Sarwan. His technique was superb, but for one occasion, he got on top of the bouncing deliveries, and he moved to the ball and drove with the spin. He was not afraid, he was not tentative, and he dominated the bowling. He also, however, needs to score some runs to be considered a West Indies batsman.

As cricket fans, certainly those who love the game, look back at Jamaica and West Indies cricket these past few years, as they reflect on the two matches at Sabina Park, instead of talking about who is the next Headley, the next Rowe, the next Sobers and the next Richards, instead of talking about potential and lambasting the selectors for not selecting players who are still to perform and who look nervous even walking to the wicket, they should ask themselves this question: what has happened to the art of batting?

Cleveland Davidson was never in the class of a Rowe or a Dujon. He was a performer, however, and right now Jamaica would do with one like him.

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