FROM THE BOUNDARY - Thank you Shivnarine Chanderpaul

Tony Becca

The Test series against England is over and every West Indian fan, at home or abroad, must be heaving a sigh of relief.

In one of their weakest performances ever, in one of the feeblest performances ever by a team touring England, the West Indies were defeated 3-0 in the four-match series and as disappointing as it was, it certainly was not surprising.

First off, it was difficult for a team that had been losing for so long despite the presence of batsmen like Brian Lara and Ramnaresh Sarwan, to turn around and win without them and on that basis alone, the performance in England was not surprising.

The performance was also not surprising because three of the matches were played in difficult conditions - in conditions in which the ball swung alarmingly.

Sitting ducks

It was also not surprising, not only because the West Indies did not have a spin bowler on call, but also, maybe because of their lack of respect for spinners, maybe because of their failure to encourage and to nurture spin bowlers, because their batsmen, just as they were against the left-arm swing of Ryan Sidebottom, were like sitting ducks against the left-arm spin of Monty Panesar.

But for when they faced Shivnarine Chanderpaul, it was interesting to see the smiles on the faces of the two left-handers after every ball they bowled to all the other West Indies batsmen.

They enjoyed seeing the West Indian batsmen playing and missing, swinging and missing and none more so than Panesar - the spin bowler whom many believed should not have played because of the conditions but who preened himself with 23 wickets, including five wickets in an innings on three occasions, at an average of 18.69.

Conditions or no conditions, cold or no cold, swing or no swing, it was embarrassing to see the West Indies batsmen trying to bat - and especially so against Panesar.

Could not deal with bowling

They could not deal with his flight - with his loop - they could not deal with his degree of turn, they were bemused by his mixture of spinning deliveries and his straight deliveries, they could not play his bouncing deliveries and it was pathetic - again probably because they are not accustomed to playing anyone like him because bowlers like him are not encouraged in the West Indies - to see them searching for the ball at times and swinging in desperation at other times.

And it was the same thing when they faced Sidebottom.

The West Indies batsmen, but for Chanderpaul, did not know which way the ball was heading, not so much while it was in the air, but after it pitched, because they did not know when to play and when not to play and the result was that they ended up, many times, leaving the ball alone, not playing at the ball pitched on their stumps and losing their off-stump or their middle stump.

Embarrassing performance

No, the performance of the West Indies was not surprising. It was, however, disappointing to the point of embarrassing because the selectors and the players make the same mistakes time after time, day after day. It was the same story of 10 or so years ago.

The selectors have turned their back on spin bowlers in the Caribbean and because of that, they embarrassed West Indies cricket, not only by using Christopher Gayle and Marlon Samuels as the spin bowlers in the team, but by forcing the captain to use Chanderpaul early in an innings.

With Fidel Edwards, the fast bowler with a slinging action, finally regaining his place in the team and rightly so, the bowling, as bad as it was most times, was not too bad sometimes.

The fielding, however, was atrocious and based on the strokes attempted by most of the batsmen, based on the approach of the lower order batsmen when they only needed to stay with Chanderpaul, based on some of the strokes attempted by some of the bowlers who obviously believe they can bat even though they cannot, the batting, but for Chanderpaul, but for Dwayne Bravo for brief periods, was deplorable.

Took the cake

West Indies cricket has been marking time since around 1995. The team has had some poor results following disappointing performances, but this one took the cake.

But for Chanderpaul, who scored 446 runs in five innings with two centuries at an average of 148.65, the West Indies would probably have not made 200 runs in any innings and would probably have lost by margins similar to that at Headingley where, with Chanderpaul injured and out of action, they fell to their worst defeat ever when they were crushed by an innings and 283 runs after they were routed for 146 and 141.

With their first innings lasting for 37 overs in 168 minutes and their second innings for 42.10 overs in 178 minutes, their total number of overs, their total number of minutes in that Test match did not add up to one day's play.