Rampaul
EVERY SO often something happens that whether it is right or wrong appears to be nothing but a convenience, and that is the case with the news that Ravi Rampaul will miss the remainder of the West Indies tour of England.
The teenaged fast bowler from Trinidad and Tobago is scheduled to leave for home today and will be replaced by Corey Collymore the 26-year-old pacer from Barbados who is expected to join the team on Monday.
According to a release by the team management, Rampaul is suffering from injuries to his shins sustained from early in the tour, following consultation between the team management and the West Indies Cricket Board's medical panel, it was decided that he should return home, and remembering that he is not the first injured player to have ever been sent home, nothing is wrong with that.
In fact, with the injury taking place on July 3, with the injury being what it is, with Rampaul being a fast bowler, he should have been sent home long ago.
What is interesting, however, is the timing of the decision to send Rampaul home especially at it appears that that was never on the cards.
The reading of the situation is that Rampaul is now being sent home, not so much because of his injury but after the embarrassment of the West Indies bowling on the opening day of the first Test, more so because of a desire to get a more experienced pace bowler in the squad.
On the first day of the first Test, West Indies captain Brian Lara won the toss, sent England to bat and at the end of the day the score was 391 for two off 84.3 overs with Andrew Strauss and Robert Key, not Michael Vaughan and Graham Thorpe, scoring 137 and 167 not out respectively, and with their bowlers ripped apart.
On a day when they did not seem to know where the wickets were, on a day when the pitch appeared too short for them at times and too long at other times, on a day when they bowled 12 wides and six no-balls, the 27-year-old Pedro Collins conceded 58 runs off 13.3 overs, the 22-year-old Tino Best 75 off 16, the 22-year-old Fidel Edwards 60 off 15, the 20-year-old Dwayne Bravo 42 off 14, and the 22-year-old offspinner Omari Banks 111 off 17 overs against batsmen who never really took advantage of the weakest attack that I have ever seen in a Test match.
There is another reason why it appears that Rampaul was sent home not so much because of his injury but more so to find a place for another bowler.
The reason is this: the release, handed out yesterday morning, was dated July 22 - the first day of the Test match.
Collymore, who made his debut against Australia in 1999 and who took seven wickets for 57 runs against Sri Lanka in 2003 in his second Test match, has so far taken 31 wickets in 11 Test matches, and last year season in the County Championship, he played five matches for Warwickshire, bowled 138 overs and took eight wickets for 475 at an average of 59.37.
Will Collymore make a difference? Maybe not.
The West Indies, however, really needed to do something about their bowling. Right now, it is like school boys bowling to men - and there are three more matches to come.
- Tony Becca
