Leicestershire crash land

It was amazing to see Trinidad & Tobago lose just two wickets with their opposition namely Leicestershire being able to keep just one wicket in their hand at the end of their innings after scoring 51 runs less than what Trinidad & Tobago could manage. I was just cursing Trinidad and Tobago for having so many batsmen unused when the likes of Daren Ganga, Sherwin Ganga and Jason Mohammed could have proved to be handy with the bat. According to me, the team batting need not and should not care about the number of wickets they have in hand.

The tail end batsmen n any team are meant to just go out and slog it out there and not bother about their wicket being thrown away. The tail end players are more of bowlers rather than batsmen. It should be the ball which should do the taking and not their bat. The first wicket from the Trinidad and Tobago team fell in the first ball of the 18^th over when the scoreboard read 139/0. Nevermind that there was some big hitting toward the fag end of their innings with the last 17 balls yielding 30 runs at the rate of 10.00 runs an over.

Until then, the scoring rate was just above 8.00 runs an over. Had the batsmen taken a few risks, the score might have gone well beyond 180 with 4 more wickets falling (may be). On the other hand, even the bowlers from Leicestershire team did not put in much effort to push the batsmen to take any aerial route in an attempt to clear the ropes which in turn would safely land in the hands of any fielder in the deep. One has to wonder as to why Mathew Hoggard bowled just three overs when he was the most economical bowler of the lot.

Coming to the batting of Leicestershire, there were two batsmen dismissed for duck and two other scoring single digit scores among the top four batsmen. I wish I was in place of James Taylor who was just enjoying his batting at the crease knowing well that no fingers would point towards him and neither could his team win the match after their top order deceiving them. Along with Taylor, even Abdul Razzaq joined the party to be the only two batsmen scoring over 10 runs and played more than 50% of the match. I wonder how come the Leicestershire could not be bowled out with such a dismal batting.

When West Indies team itself is unfit?

Well the news has its say that the West Indies cricket Board (WICB) has scrapped contracts for Ramnaresh Sarwan, Narsingh Deonarine and Jerome Taylor owing to the same old reason that the above mentioned players' fitness does not cope up to the standards of the international cricket. As per my view, the aforementioned three players are the commonest of common names that can be heard in the West Indies team and what is more is that the new upcoming star cricketer in the West Indies team - Narsingh Deonarine has also been shown the gates. Nevermind though if the WICB's words have meaning.

The only name that is seen missing from the list would be Shivnarine Chanderapaul who has been taking the burden of the rusted West Indies team for more than a decade since the 1999 world cup after the retirement of the famous three deadly fast bowlers namely Curtly Ambose, Courteny Walsh and Ian Bishop. Of course, the names mentioned are fast bowlers. But, in their department, they did their job to the fullest extent, leaving little job for the batsmen to complete that included Chanderapaul and Brian Lara. Since then, the West Indies' burden has been shared by only Chanderapaul especially after Lara retired.

The other comparatively lesser known names are obviously Ramnaresh Sarwan and Chris Gayle (though Chris Gayle's name is not listed in the wrong list). Though not completely successful, the fast bowling line up of the West Indies team is headed by Jerome Taylor with equal support from Dwayne Smith and Dwayne Bravo. With Jerome being stripped of his contract, there would no doubt be a blow to the West Indies fast bowling line up which is otherwise also deteriorated. One can definitely ask what is the alternative in case a player is injured or speaking precise is not completely fit for the WICB to award contracts?

Though there can be no other option but to go ahead with the WICB, one has to imagine the lack of fitness of the senior players with the rest of the squad being healthy, if at all the WICB is to be believed. News also had its say that in addition to the three mentioned, even the wicket keeper Denesh Ramdin has been stripped of his national contract. This means that the West Indies team has an unfit player in all departments namely batting, bowling and wicket keeping. On the otherhand, new comers namely Kieron Pollard and Adrian Barat have been given full deals. How mean!