If one has to go by the words of the new West Indian captain Ottis Gibson who was found saying that the West Indies team didn't take the Zimbabwe lightly after West Indies lost the only T20 game that they played as a part of the series with Zimbabwe on its tour to the West Indies. The fact at present is that the West Indies are in no mood to take Zimbabwe or any team for that matter lightly. It has to be the opposition that has to take the present West Indies team lightly and at times pay the price for the same.
Even if the opposition takes the West Indies lightly, they can still manage to win a game in a one sided manner. This was evident when the Australian captain Ricky Ponting imposed a follow on upon the West Indies in the 1st test played at Brisbane where Australia had taken a lead of just above 200. The lead, to be exact was 252 runs which hardly makes any captain impose a follow on. It should either be a weak opposition like Bangladesh or there should be a huge margin of lead in case any captain should impose a follow on on the opposition team.
Despite Pakistan failing to win the second test played at Sydney on its tour to OZ after bowling out the Australians for a mere total of 127, the Australian captain Ricky Ponting didn't have the courage to impose a follow on in the 3rd and the final test against Pakistan. This clearly shows that the Australia had taken the West Indies lightly and not the other way round. And if the West Indies didn't take Zimbabwe for granted, can Ottis Gibson give a genuine reason regarding West Indies' loss to Zimbabwe in the T20 game that they played at Trinidad! Is the current WI team so bad that it can't even chase down 105 runs in a T20 game?
Is the West Indies team so bad that it can't even maintain a run rate of 4.0 in a T20 match and that too against a non test playing team in Zimbabwe? Was West Indies playing a test match that was sure to be drawn which saw them losing just 7 wickets. Had all the West Indian batsmen been out, there would have been some lame reason to justify their defeat irrespective of whether anyone believes them or not. The Zimbabwean innings saw 7 of their batsmen scoring ducks which still didn't stop them from winning. Had the WI team taken the Zimbabwean team lightly, still that could have been forgiven. But, if it the other way round, I wish the WI turn their attention towards domestic cricket.
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