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!

One has to really pity Gayle

It is just not understandable whether it is curse for Chris Gayle to captain a West Indies team that has nothing but scrap in it. The eleven players who faced Australia in yesterday's first T20 match against Australia had just four names that were making rounds in the West Indies team namely Gayle himself, Morton, Smith and Sammy compared to the rest of the players. The rest of the 7 players were there only to fill the vacant positions in the playing XI. This was more or less the squad that faced Bangladesh almost a year ago and gifted Bangladesh their first test series victory.

This was needless to be said that Bangladesh tasted their first ever test series victory against the West Indies and that too was fortunate enough for them to have it outside home. Anyways, coming to the 1st T20 game between West Indies and Australia, scoreboard suggests that Australia is just wasting its resources by going in for players like Shane Watson, Shaun Tait and others when lesser known players who are still going through a rotational basis in Australian domestic cricket. The first 40+ individual score from a West Indian batsman with a strike rate of 100+ happened to be Dinesh Ramdin whose batting position was 8^th.

The entire West Indian innings contained no sixes absolutely. Anyway, it might not be the number of sixes that matter in a game. And not even the presence of experienced lads who can turn around the game. But, the situation with the West Indies is nothing but pathetic. All that the West Indies could manage to do was not to lose all the 10 wickets that they had. They lost 8 wickets, which was equal to the number of wickets lost by the Australians as well. One has to wonder as to how come West Indies could make it to the semis of the T20 world cup in England last year?

West Indies beat India and England in the super eights of the world T20, after they beat Australia to enter the super eights. Since then, they have never been able to win even a single T20 game whatsoever. Of course, the presence of Shivnarine Chanderapaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan will make a lot of difference to the West Indies team. For, they can atleast add few more runs to the West Indies' total that is otherwise miser. A part time bowler in Chris Gayle had to use his experience to grab two Aussie wickets which were price worthy ones namely Shane Watson and David Hussey. In fact, it was Gayle who provided his team with a breakthrough by dismissing Watson.

With so much responsibility and always the need being for Gayle to fight a losing battle, one has to really pity Gayle.

A Virtual Quater Final and so Boring?

The match between the West Indies and England was as good as a quarter final wherein the team which wins would advance to the next round and the team that loses would have to forfeit all hopes of winning the tournament anymore. At the end of the day, it was the west Indies who came out victorious but, not in a manner that most of us would agree. Of course, nothing could be done for the showers that pour down. But, a lot more can still be done for the teams out there to see to that they play 20 overs of cricket uninterrupted by weather. Had it been a one day match, nothing could be done much. At the most, the match could be played fresh the next day.

However, the T20 format of the game is not bound to this condition. A delay of even 3 to 4 hours can still ensure justified cricket, without denying either of the team of its overs or the powerplay. In other words, I don't see the Duckworth-Lewis playing such an important role in the T20 game. One can as well wait for the showers to completely pour down and then start the play afresh. And that too in such a competition that involves all the major cricket playing nations from the world, the Duckworth-Lewis can never satisfy all. Perhaps! Even the West Indies would not have been satisfied despite winning and advancing to the semis.

It was ad to see all the hard work that England put in to put up a decent total of 161 on the board going in vain. The man of the match was not given to either Ravi Bopara who struck a magnificient half century aided with 5 hits to the fence or to Kevin Pietersen who scored 31 runs with a strike rate 164, but was given to Ramnaresh Sarwan first for belonging to the winning team and then for scoring 19 runs at a strike rate of 211. Don't you guys think that it is just foolish to shorten the shortest version of the game of cricket? If the rules for T20 are same as that for ODI, the T20 can rather be called as a reduced version of fifty overs cricket.

Some twenty years back, the one day match used to be played for 60 overs a side, which was then reduced to 55 overs a side. And now the same is played with each team having been prepared to bowl 50 overs. I don't see the T20 format as something special if not for the fact that a team bowls just 20 overs and in some cases, the boundary is shortened. If such is the thiking, there could be four other formats of cricket namely 60-60, 55-55, ODI and the T20. In case the game of T20 is to be enjoyed by the fans all over, I suggest that the ICC drop the Duckworth-Lewis method from this format. When the ICC can come out with a solution in case of matches ending up in a tie, I don't find the reason for ICC to go in for the same D-L method in T20 as well.