Tony Becca, Senior Sport Editor
WHEN IT comes to second-guessing, to be a Monday morning quarter-back as they say in American football, there is no game like cricket.
From who should be in a team, to who should bat where in the batting order, who should bowl when, the setting of the field and the timing of a declaration, there is always something to discuss, something to debate, and as far as the fans are concerned, especially when their team is not doing well, the selectors and the captain are always wrong.
It is the same thing when a captain wins the toss, decides to bowl first and the opposing team goes on to post a huge total.
LUCK
In fact, in such a situation there is never any sympathy for the captain who gives away his luck certainly not from those who believe that cricket is a batsman's game, that barring a wet one at the start, a pitch never gets better over five days, and unless faced with an affected pitch, that when you win the toss you should think once, think twice, and then decide to bat.
Whether he thought once or twice on Thursday morning, Brian Lara won the toss at the start of the third Test against Australia at Kensington Oval, sent Australia to bat, and the team that scored 489 and 147 for one batting second in the first Test at Bourda; and 576 for four and 238 for three batting first in the second Test at Queen's Park Oval; chipped to 320 for three on the first day on their way to 605 for nine declared.
Why did Lara give away the toss?
It may well have been that something was in the pitch and the captain preferred to take the risk of his young and inexperienced attack failing to make use of it rather than expose his young and mostly inexperienced batsmen to such pace bowlers as the experienced and skilful Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie and Brett Lee.
If that was the case, so be it even though he ran the risk of Australia posting a total of such proportions that it would intimidate his batsmen.
What was interesting, however, is the captain's reason for giving the toss away.
After saying at stumps on the first day that he had no regrets, Lara was quoted as saying: "I am going to back my batsmen to bat well in the fourth innings and if they have to chase a total, chase it, and if they have to play to draw the match, draw the match."
After saying that was the reason for his decision, and without pointing to the fact that the West Indies dropped a number of catches and that if a few of them had been taken things may have been different, he also said: "It's quite obvious that in the four innings we have played that we have batted better in the three innings that we knew exactly what was happening."
While it is true that they lost the first Test by nine wickets after batting first, it is also true that they lost the second by 118 runs after Australia, batting first after winning the toss, declared both their innings closed while losing only a total of seven wickets.
STRONG
The truth is that Australia are so experienced and strong in every department of the game, the West Indies so inexperienced and weak certainly as far as bowling and fielding is concerned that it may not matter who bats first or second.
Batting first is always a better bet. However, batting first on a pitch that promises to break up is even a better bet, and batting first when batting is one's strength is still a better bet.
In fact, if a team's batting is fairly strong and its bowling weak, instead of making it tough for both the batsmen and the bowlers by bowling when it should be batting and batting when it should be bowling, it must be better to bat when the pitch is at its best for batting and to bowl when it is at its best for bowling.
Unless, the captain who wins the toss lacks confidence in his batsmen, unless he is so afraid of losing that he hopes the captain of the opposing team will bat so long that there is not enough time to win the match, and remembering the old saying that runs on the tins have to be made, it must be better, once there is a choice, to make the opposing bowlers bowl when the pitch is good for batting and the opposing batsmen bat when it is ideal for bowling particularly when a team is not blessed with quality bowlers.
