Rain, No Play

Lendl Simmons (above) was shockingly selected over Jerome Taylor.

West Indies' hopes of becoming the first team to win a World Cup on home soil took a significant hit today when the team suffered its second consecutive trouncing in as many days. After losing the toss and being inserted by New Zealand, the host nation managed to turn a solid foundation of 66/1 from 16+ overs into a paltry 177 all out inside of 45 overs. This after Lendl Simmons was selected at the expense of Jerome Taylor in an attempted move to strengthen a batting line-up that is yet to score 250 in this World Cup.

Chris Gayle and Brian Lara were the only two batsmen making contributions of note, scoring 44 and 37 respectively. Shane Bond showed his wicket-taking ability with a testing opening spell and ended with figures of 3-31. Jacob Oram and Daniel Vettori also finished with 3 wickets each.

Needing an inspired fielding performance, the West Indies began promisingly when Daren Powell removed Peter Fulton with the second ball of the innings. Dwayne Smith then had an apparent LBW decision turned down the following over, and that was that. Economical bowling was never going to be enough to defend 177, and Jerome Taylor was sorely missed. Scott Styris saw the Kiwis home with a measured 80 not out.

The primary question arising from today's performance centres around the inclusion of Simmons. Lara justified Simmons' inclusion by referencing his team's failure to score 250 runs thus far. Furthermore, Lara went on to distance himself from the selection of the 15 man World Cup Squad, saying "I was not there in the meeting. The team was selected without me. But I still go out there and fight my very best with the squad given to me."

Be that as it may, Simmons' selection was unwarranted on many levels. In 7 previous ODI matches, he managed to post a pedestrian 56.25 strike rate. An inexperienced player that has a slow strike rate has no place batting at number 8 when he will be called upon to score runs quickly in the latter overs. More importantly, his inclusion weakened the Windies' bowling attack against a very deep, albeit depleted, New Zealand batting order. Lara subsequently chose to open the bowling with Dwayne Smith since he did not have the raw pace and wicket taking abilities of Jerome Taylor at his disposal. Kieron Pollard would have been the better option as, at the very least, he would have provided Lara with another bowling option and the ability to score quickly.

Changes must be made for the remainder of the tournament. Rain, No Play has the following suggestions...

1) The opening pair of Chris Gayle and Shivnarine Chanderpaul are not firing. Previously we stated that the srength of the opening pair could be a reason why the Windies win the World Cup. The selectors must now adjust. Perhaps two left handers at the top of the order makes bowling a good line and length too easy for top class attacks. As such, given the aptitude and technique displayed by Denesh Ramdin in the last two games, he should be given a chance alongside Gayle. If nothing else, he has shown that extravagant shots are not needed to score quickly.

2) Lara is correct in that the batting is the main problem. Given his class and current form, it is inexplicable that Lara should bat as far down as #5. Being the best player in the side, and one of the all-time greats, the skipper needs to bat higher in the order. He should not be the one to try and glue the innings together when the team is 3 down in short order. Ramnaresh Sarwan's inability to capitalize on solid starts facilitates the need for this change.

3) Make use of Chanderpaul's ability to accumulate runs in the middle of the order. In the past two games, the West Indies have lacked someone to keep a cool head, occupy the crease and nudge the ball around when wickets have fallen in the middle overs.

4) Dwayne Smith should bat no lower than #7. His performance in the opening game against Pakistan once more demonstrated his potential. It is also evident that his main objective when at the crease is to score quickly. His talents are then lost when he comes in at #9 as he did today, with few wickets left and a need to occupy the crease.

5) Lendl Simmons has no place in the starting eleven. It must be noted that Simmons, like Lara, both hail from Trinidad - interpret that how you like.

Accordingly, the newly proposed batting line-up would be as follows -

Gayle, Ramdin, Lara, Sarwan, Samuels, Chanderpaul, Smith, Bravo, Taylor, Powell, Collymore.

This latest defeat leaves the West Indies in a position where the team needs to win all four remaining matches in order to have a fair chance of advancing to the semi-finals. One has to question the strength of schedule for the home team in the opening stages of the Super Eights and the fact that the team will have played 3 games in 5 days when they play Sri Lanka on Sunday. With India already out of the tournament and fan attendance already poor, and early exit by the West Indies will only serve to compound matters for World Cup organizers. With the murder of Bob Woolmer, early exits of the Indian and Pakistan teams, along with poor spectator attendance, what promised to be a month long celebration in the Caribbean may yet be remembered as a debacle, unmatched in World Cup history.

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