Falling from Grace- Windies Cricket

WICB Photo

An innings and 220 runs battering from the World number One Test cricket team South Africa, has left a lot of fans in the Caribbean and around the world wondering ifs the gap is that wide between both the Proteas and the West Indies.

Currently ranked at eight in the world, the Caribbean team could only manage a cumulative score of 332 in both innings (201 and 131 respectively) going down inside of three days in the first Test match.

The horrific display by the Windies bowlers and batsmen now begs the question as to whether the will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach their full potential have gone from the minds of the current players. Some persons have now concluded that the focus of the current players is on monetary gains instead of the passion for excellence that saw Windies Cricket at the helm in the early 1970s and beyond.

The West Indies made their first ever official tour to South Africa in 1998–99. It was a disaster, starting with player revolts and ending with a 5–0 defeat. The question now remains, is it a matter of history repeating it’s self? Or will the team pull it together for the remainder of the tour, like true Caribbean warriors.

Chasing the South African total of 552, only a few players in Devon Smith 35, Marlon Samuels 33, Leon Johnson 31, Captain Ramdin 14 and Veteran Shivnarine Chanderpaul 21 manage to score double figures.

The chief destroyer for the South Africans was Dale Steyn, who bagged six wickets in what seemed to many like a training session or bowling practice against the West Indies batsmen .

They were blown away within 15.3 overs, their last seven wickets falling for 55 runs only.

Two of the South African batsmen Amla 208, de Villiers 152 both totaled individual that were higher than the entire batting effort of the Windies in their second innings.

The critics now think the Windies cricket team will soon be declined the privileges of having extending Test Series and even the possibility of them being offered tours comprising of ODI and T20 against the top tier teams.

West Indies fans will hope that their team can show a little spine and offer some form of good resistance when the 2nd of three test matches gets on the way on December 26-30 2014.