FROM THE BOUNDARY - The harsh reality, according to Dyson

Tony Becca

THE WEST Indies ended their three-match one-day series against Pakistan, in Abu Dhabi recently, on a losing note, and a disappointing, very disappointing, one at that.

After losing the first match with one delivery to spare and the second by 24 runs, the West Indies, looking good, very good, at one stage, lost the third by 31 runs to go down 3-0, and coach John Dyson is not amused.

Following on captain Christopher Gayle's pronouncement that the team made some simple mistakes, Dyson came out swinging.

According to Dyson, "the newcomers don't have the basic skills for this kind of cricket", and, but for those by batsmen Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, and also fast bowlers Jerome Taylor and newcomer Lionel Baker, when one looks, for example, at the performance of batsmen Sewnarine Chattergoon, Xavier Marshall, Brendan Nash, Shawn Findlay and Carlton Baugh Jr, both as a batsman and as a wicketkeeper, he was dead on target.

And it was not only that Chattergoon, Marshall, Nash, Findlay and Baugh, for example, scored a total of 111 runs in 12 innings between them. It was also, and more important, the way they batted - the way they approached scoring runs and the manner of their dismissals.

First of all, the batsmen, almost all of them, including Gayle and Sarwan, looked completely at sea to the swinging delivery. In fact, some of them looked like it was the first time in their lives that they were seeing a cricket ball swing and especially so one way and then the other way.

Looked scared against spin

Second, some of them, and more so Findlay, looked scared against the two-way spin of Shahid Afridi. It was as if he had never ever before batted against a bowler who spins the ball both ways.

On top of that, their approach, especially that of Marshall, Findlay and Baugh, Taylor and Powell, even while batting with someone like Chanderpaul or Gayle at the other end, and while they were batting well, gave the impression that their brains were scrambled - either that, or they believed that they are better batsmen than they really are, that they are better batsmen than Gayle and Chander-paul and that they had better get on with it before Gayle or Chanderpaul get out.

In the second match, with Chanderpaul on his way to a century, with the West Indies still in it, the West Indies lost Marshall run out, Findlay run out, Baugh bowled - pulling away and swinging his bat recklessly, and the West Indies were dismissed with 3.3 overs still to be bowled and with Chanderpaul, the man who hit a four and a six off the last two deliveries to win a one-day international against Sri Lanka just recently, not out.

In the third match, with Gayle batting brilliantly, with the West Indies chasing 274 and reaching 168 for one in the 33rd over, the West Indies lost five wickets for 25 runs with the batsmen swinging with gay abandon, and especially so

Players unprepared

Findlay, the left-hander who swiped at pacer Iftikhar Anjum, and with the ball sailing into the air, was caught beside the wicket at the non-striker's end by Shoaib Malik coming in from mid-off.

According to Dyson, the West Indies are generating players who are unprepared to play against international teams and, as the coach of the team, the finger could easily be pointed at him and his party and to his predecessor, Bennett King and his entourage.

The truth, however, is this: although, in my opinion, they have done nothing to improve West Indies cricket, the foreign coaches are not to be blamed for the standard of West Indies cricket.

When it is remembered that when regional first-class cricket was strong the West Indies were not only strong but were also the best in the world, West Indies cricket is weak because of the poor standard of regional cricket and regional cricket is weak because of the poor standard in the clubs. Apart from the lack of good coaches, or the absence of good, solid and knowledgeable advice from those in the clubs, the poor standard, in the clubs is due to the decline in the clubs and in the club system.

According to Dyson, the standard of regional cricket is far below that in Australia, an Australian first-class player plays "umpteen number of matches, so when he is called he is ready to play international matches", and that is how it should be.

In the West Indies, in today's West Indies, and as it has been for a number of years now, a young West Indian is called to Test cricket after a few first-class matches, as a batsman, he is called, some times, most times, with only one century behind his name, some times with not even one.

Young players

As a bowler, he is called some times, with only a few matches under his belt, some times, with more matches than wickets to his name, some times without even one five-wicket haul to his name.

That is why there are so many young former players in West Indies cricket - batsmen and bowlers who got in at age 19, 20 or 21 without any worthwhile performance behind them, without any experience or grooming and, after failing to work a miracle, are discarded by the same people who, obviously, did not know what they were doing, or who, probably believing that they could turn water into wine, were simply hoping for a miracle.

Without Gayle, on his day, without Sarwan, some times, definitely without Chanderpaul, and without Taylor, the West Indies team would have been a total embarrassment to the West Indian people.

Mistakes

The simple mistakes that Gayle spoke about would not have happened had the players been more experienced or had they been groomed properly before they were thrown into the deep end.

More important, definitely just as important, young West Indian batsmen, for example, would be technically equipped, would be confident enough to play the swinging ball if first-class cricket in the West Indies was so good that bowlers were forced to swing the ball, were willing to try and swing the ball, and if the 'coaches' around the region were willing not only to encourage young fast bowlers to bowl fast, really fast, but also if they were good enough or willing to teach the art of swinging the ball.