CARLOS BRATHWAITE cares about West Indies cricket.
For how much longer, though, can he retain the same level of commitment in the face of an increasing number of dispiriting setbacks at the same time that there are more and more lucrative opportunities beyond the boundaries
of the Caribbean game?
After his side contrived to lose the second T20 International against Pakistan at the Queen’s Park Oval on Thursday, the captain called on his players to look in the mirror, to face up to the reality of whether or not they are doing their best as individuals in contributing to a more effective team effort.
But we already know what the answer is, especially as it can never be taken for granted that sportsmen and women, especially in this highly insecure environment called the Caribbean, are ever inclined to own up in large measure to their own shortcomings – even privately.
Since becoming world champions in the format for the second time thanks to Brathwaite’s unforgettable final over pyrotechnics in Kolkata, the West Indies have edged India by one run in a high-scoring thriller in Lauderhill, escaped the prospect of defeat the next day because of inclement weather and, before this weekend’s final two matches in Port of Spain, were on a run of five losses to Pakistan.
As deflating as the hammerings in the United Arab Emirates last September and the tour opener in Bridgetown a week ago were, that three-run loss hammered home an inescapable reality: the efficiency and execution of West Indies cricketers motivated to give of their very best are critically deficient.
We can speculate wildly or sensibly as to what may be the contributory factors to the poor outcricket evident in the One-Day International series loss administered by England last month and again embarrassingly obvious three days ago, and even if they were to reverse the trend this weekend and share honours at 2-2, it won’t change the fact that too many players in West Indies colours perform at levels way below what is expected of them and especially what they have shown themselves capable of previously.
Amid the sloppy fielding, sub-standard catching and the prospect that a collision of some sort could have happened at any time, Brathwaite’s anger was evident. It’s only because of his complexion that he wasn’t, as the Europeans like to refer to it, incandescent with rage.
At the toss he talked about a very good team meeting the evening before. These “clear-the-air” sessions are nothing new in West Indies cricket. Indeed, it was one of those types of gatherings at which the Australian business tycoon Kerry Packer famously told quite a few of the West Indian giants at the time what they could do with themselves and which flight they could take out of Sydney after the collection of champion players performed like schoolboys in the early days of World Series Cricket (WSC) almost 40 years ago.
Suitably insulted by their paymaster, they straightened up and started to fly right to the extent that they dominated the rest of the season, the one that followed, retained the 50-over World Cup title at Lord’s immediately following the folding up of WSC and then went on a 15-year period of near invincibility when the West Indies did not lose a single Test series anywhere in the world between being robbed blind in New Zealand at the start of 1980 and surrendering the Frank Worrell Trophy to Mark Taylor’s Australians at Sabina Park in 1995.
No one is suggesting that a similar cuss-out by anyone in the present team hierarchy will have anything remotely approaching that sort of success. West Indies cricket has declined too far and for too long for one, or even many vitriolic interventions to turn things around.
It is easy to blame the franchise T20 specialists, the ones who will be in action from Wednesday when the tenth season of the Indian Premier League begins with the Sunrisers of Hyderabad hosting the Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Yet, even if a truce were to be brokered and some sort of amicable settlement were to be arrived at between those players and the West Indies Cricket Board, evidence on the field over the past month suggests that the ills reflected in lethargy and thoughtless cricket are endemic in the Caribbean game.
Last Thursday, Evin Lewis allowed a ball to roll through his fingers on the boundary and later veered into the path of an opposing player to be run out when he should have made his ground comfortably. For all his talent, Rovman Powell appears lackadaisical in the field apart from failing to deliver with the bat in the first two T20s.
Neither are franchise stars.This West Indies team needs more than robust team meetings and an incensed skipper to play like if they mean it.
Fazeer Mohammed is a regional cricket journalist and broadcaster who has been covering the game at all levels since 1987.