FROM THE BOUNDARY By Tony Becca
THE TWO-Test series between the West Indies and Pakistan is over and after losing both matches, the West Indies record in eight series and 27 matches away from home since 1997 now reads two victories, two draws and 23 defeats.
It should also be noted that in six of those eight series, the West Indies failed to win or draw a match.
While there was hardly anyone who expected the result to have been any different, there were a few fans, including yours truly, who had hoped that the West Indies would have put up a fight and the really disturbing thing is that they did not.
Apart from the opening morning of the series when they picked up four wickets and Pakistan were a bit wobbly at 94 for four, the West Indies were never in it and lost without a fight. In fact, to use boxing parlance, they threw only two worthwhile punches that one on the first morning and one on the third day when Shivna-rine Chanderpaul and Ryan Hinds staged a recovery before another of what has now become the inevitable collapse.
Those two brief interludes of success apart, they were soundly beaten as they were in Sri Lanka.
In Sri Lanka, the West Indies lost the first Test by 10 wickets, the second by 131 runs and the third by 10 wickets. In Sharjah, they lost the first by 170 and the second by 244 runs; and it was not because the batting was weak, or because the bowling was weak, or because the fielding was weak.
When it is remembered that Sri Lanka recorded scores of 590 for nine declared and six without loss, 288 and 224 for six declared, 627 for nine declared and 27 without loss and the West Indies 448 and 144, 191 and 190, 390 and 262, that Pakistan recorded scores of 493 and 214 for six declared, 472 and 225 for five declared and the West Indies 366 and 171, 264 and 189, that Sri Lanka dropped few catches, that Pakistan also dropped only a few, and that the West Indies dropped catch after catch after catch, it was simply because the team is weak.
It is even worse when the regularity and the extent of the West Indies collapses in both series are also remembered.
In Sri Lanka, it went like this: six wickets for 27 runs and five for 13 in the first Test, five for 34 and five for 65 in the second, seven for 43 and five for 12 in the third; and in Pakistan, it went like this: five for 14 and seven for 25 in the first, and five for 28 in the second innings of the second.
With not many people apparently prepared to accept the fact that the West Indies team is weak because West Indies cricket is weak, almost every one of those defeats have been followed by excuses, and this Test match, this Test series, is no different.
Probably because they have run out of others, probably because they are tired of talking about biased umpiring, and probably because they are tired of criticising the young players who are not ready for Test cricket and who did not select themselves, fans are now blaming captain Carl Hooper for this latest defeat.
Hooper won the toss, sent Pakistan to bat, and they believe he gave away the Test match there and then.
The recent record of the West Indies away from home does not support that opinion, however.
Apart from the fact that the West Indies dropped a number of catches early on the first day, the record shows that as far as the result is concerned, it does not matter whether they bat first or second.
Against Australia, for example, almost every time they batted first they lost five or six wickets before they got to 40 runs, and against Sri Lanka, they batted first in the first Test, collapsed from 423 for four to 448 and lost, they bowled first in the second Test, removed the home team for 288 and lost, and they batted first in the third Test, collapsed from 347 for three to 390 and lost.
Maybe Hooper should have batted first, and there were many good reasons why he should have batted first. The fans, however, should not be so harsh on the captain. It must be tough captaining a side like this West Indies team.
This West Indies team is so weak that after calling right and winning the toss, Hooper, after looking at his batsmen and his bowlers, probably flipped a coin before deciding who to protect at the start.
