Tony BeccaLIKE so many champions of the past, the West Indies are going through a rough time. They can hardly win a match. Victory, especially away from home, is like an impossible dream.
Will it ever end? Will the sun ever shine again on West Indies cricket? On both counts, it will. The rough time will end, and the sun will shine again. The question is when.
It will not be tomorrow, but it could be earlier than the 10 years being suggested by some. It all depends, not so much on how long it will take for young batsmen like Ramnaresh Sarwan, Wavell Hinds, Darren Ganga, Ricardo Powell, Christopher Gayle, Marlon Samuels, Sylvester Joseph, Ryan Hinds and Azeemul Haniff to mature. Not only on how long it will take coaches around the region to recognise the folly in not teaching West Indian boys to play cricket the West Indian way, not only on how long it will take the selectors to understand that Test cricket is a stage for the best players, but also on how long it will take the selectors to appreciate that spin bowling is also a part of Test cricket.
Starting from the days of Learie Constantine, Herman Griffith and Manny Martindale, through those of Roy Gilchrist, Wes Hall and Charlie Griffith, the West Indies have been blessed with outstanding fast bowlers, and the glory days between the late 1970s and the early 1990s were due to the power of fast bowlers like Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Joel Garner, Colin Croft, Malcolm Marshall, Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh. In fact, but for Sonny Ramadhin and Alfred Valentine of the early 1950s and Lance Gibbs of the 1960s, fast bowling, like exciting batting, has dominated West Indies cricket.
That, however, does not mean every West Indies team must comprise nothing but fast bowlers - certainly not, as it is today, when but for the ageing Walsh, the fast bowlers around are all ordinary.
According to some selectors of recent times, there are no spin bowlers of quality around, and that is true. One reason for that, however, is that while fast bowlers, regardless of their skill, have been afforded every opportunity to improve, to gain experience and to impress, selectors after selectors have failed to give spin bowlers a chance to develop.
On top of that, spin bowlers have been so badly treated that they are not encouraged to develop their skills and youngsters are not encouraged to bowl spin.
It is also no secret that even those who crash the party are looked upon as support for the fast bowlers - as bowlers whose job it is to rest the pacers, and who, because of their role, are discouraged from doing anything but bowl a tight length and line. That is why there is hardly an offspinner who flights the ball or who really spins the ball in the region - not to mention a legspinner who bowls a googly.
As empty as the cupboard is, however, and for whatever reason, as disappointing as one like Rajendra Dhanraj was when he was given his opportunity, others like legspinners Dinanath Ramnarine and Mahendra Nagamootoo and offspinner Nehemiah Perry have done enough to deserve greater opportunities.
For the benefit of the selectors, before his shoulder injury, the attacking Ramnarine, three for 26 off 17 overs in the first innings of the fourth Test and four for 29 in the first innings of the sixth Test, bowled well against England in 1998, Perry, who bagged five for 70 off 26 overs in his debut Test, bowled well against Australia in 1999, and after sitting out the first four Test matches, Nagamootoo picked up two wickets for 63 runs off 24 overs in the first innings of the fifth Test against England earlier this year.
The West Indies selectors need to take off their blinkers, and this is as good a time as ever. In the first Test against four fast bowlers, Australia, in their one innings, were 101 without loss before Matthew Hayden was run out; in the second Test against four fast bowlers, Australia in their one innings eased to 52 before losing their first wicket; and in the third Test against four fast bowlers, Australia were going great guns in their first innings when Hayden was run out at 156 for one.
Young Marlon Samuels, a batsman playing in his first Test match, picked up wickets number two and number three, but although he must have been pleased with his performance, although the West Indies should say thanks, neither he nor James Adams are good enough to even pose as spin bowlers.
If the performance of spin bowlers in the other Test teams means nothing to the West Indies selectors, the Adelaide Test match should be a lesson to them. With the West Indies pacers, up and down and no longer frighteningly fast, fighting for a wicket or two, offspinner Colin Miller, Australia's third-ranked spin bowler operating in an attack of two pacers and two spinners, preened himself with five for 32 - including a deadly spell of five for eight, and five for 81.
As the Windies spinner "Down Under", it's Nagamootoo's time. He certainly can do no worse than the fourth fast bowler, he will certainly add a bit of variety, he can bat and field much better than all four, and looking ahead, his presence will be an encouragement to spin bowlers in the region.
