TODAY the West Indies attempt again to play for pride, to avoid a 5-0 sweep of their Digicel home series One-Day Internationals (ODI) by South Africa at the Queen’s Park Oval.
Perhaps more crucial for regional captain Chris Gayle is the boost of confidence a victory would give his charges ahead of next week’s first Test, also at the Oval.
“The West Indies’ spirits are good,” Gayle told reporters yesterday, despite trailing South Africa 4-0 in their five-match ODI series. The team has come close to victory in some of the matches, but has been unable to close out matches from winning positions.”
With the Test series, which begins on June 10, looming over their heads, Gayle is fully alert to the importance of victory in this long dead rubber.
Yesterday, following training at the match venue, Gayle told reporters that first up on his mind was to avoid a whitewash on home soil.
“This game is about pride,” he said. “We definitely have to go out there to give them something to cheer about. It’s better to lose the series 4-1 rather than 5-0. Our preparations have been going really well. Hopefully we can step up our game.”
One of the team’s biggest problems, according to the captain, is stringing together good batting and bowling performances consistently.
We can’t be doing one thing good and failing in one area. So hopefully we can combine those things together, and then we should get a result,” the hard-hitting Jamaican opener said.
A number of distractions have also been plaguing the team, the latest being CEO Dr Ernest Hilaire’s remarks that success to players is their “bling”, and on the literacy problems of the Under-19 West Indies team, as well as Sunday’s “sending-off” of spinner Sulieman Benn by Gayle in Dominica, after he refused to bowl over the wicket.
In fact, the latter topic was taboo during yesterday’s media conference, as the board’s media officer Philip Spooner restricted questions to today’s match.
Gayle commended the West Indies batsmen for their contributions in posting 303 batting first on Sunday in the fourth ODI. He singled out Dale Richards for his handy starts, and Darren Bravo’s batting, along with Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Kieron Pollard’s “big-hitting”.
The Windies skipper, meanwhile, is emphasising the importance of this match on the Test Series. He wants to get a winning start in the lead-up to the Tests, and suggested his players take a page out of South Africa’s book.
Gayle, though, is confident the “passionate” Trinidad and Tobago crowd would come out for the match. He again apologised for the way his team has played, and called on the West Indian public to continue supporting the team through their “difficult time”.
“I know (the fans) are hurting outside and just like us as well, and (we’re) still working hard and trying to give our supporters something to cheer about in the region. It’s a difficult time now, and it doesn’t make sense you actually trying and beat us down more to the ground, we’re going to need the support to continue.”
Mentally, the difficult series that followed a disappointing World Twenty20 campaign had taken a toll on him, Gayle admitted. He is asking his team to take it upon themselves to play their part in matches and not just get into winning situations, but see them home as well.
For that to happen, Gayle needs to find a way to motivate his charges to rebound from a sound beating at the hands of the visitors, much of which has been self-inflicted.
“South Africa are in good form. We have played them many times, so we would have to take a page out of their book,” Gayle said. “We just have to have the confidence to go out there tomorrow (today) and be ready to play.”Teams:
West Indies (from): Chris Gayle (captain), Dwayne Bravo (vice-captain), Dale Richards, Travis Dowlin, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Darren Bravo, Narsingh Deonarine, Darren Sammy, Kieron Pollard, David Bernard, Denesh Ramdin, Sulieman Benn, Jerome Taylor, Ravi Rampaul.
South Africa (from): Graeme Smith (captain), Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers, David Miller, Alviro Petersen, JP Duminy, Ryan McLaren, Johan Botha, Morne Morkel, Dale Steyn, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Mark Boucher, Charl Langeveldt, Roelof van der Merve.
