Hard facts about WI performance

The ball hit the bottom edge of the bat, rattled the stumps and the bowler Yasir Shah ran a 50-metre dash in a flash, sliding onto the field as his teammates deliriously pounced on him to celebrate Pakistan’s first ever Test series win in the West Indies — in 59 years.

ESPN Cricinfo described Gabriel’s shot selection as a “brain fade.” Gabriel, though, performed brilliantly with the ball by capturing 15 wickets at a miserly average of 18.80 in the three-Test series.

Scribes can say “we fought hard,” but let us face some hard facts: This result was our sixth straight series defeat and our 13th Test loss in the last 20 matches.

Roston Chase stamped his class by scoring 403 runs, averaging 100 in an olympian effort. No other West Indian batsman scored more than 200 runs.

The debutants Hetmyer and Singh aggregated 159 runs.

Jamaican Jermaine Blackwood was relegated to water bottle duties, despite his Test average of 32, including one 100 and nine 50s.

West Indies has been ranked eighth in the ICC world Test rankings for as long as I can remember. What’s next? Where are we going? Where have we gone? The relationship between the hierarchy of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), key players and regional governments has deteriorated badly over the past several months, even years.

In a January 1, 2015, newspaper article titled “Rousseau: WICB failing to follow constitution,” former WICB president Pat Rousseau heaped blame on current WICB president Dave Cameron for the exclusion of Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard and Daren Sammy from the One-Day International team to South Africa.

Rousseau called the omission “victimisation” and remarked that “the current board continues to fail to follow its own constitution,” adding that “all matters of player discipline must be referred to the disciplinary committee appointed by the board.” It is paramount that the trust between players and the board be restored expeditiously and egos on both sides be discarded into the hallows of hope for West Indies Test cricket to move forward. It has been far too long.

The words of David Rudder resonate in my mind: Soon we must take a side or be left in the rubble In a divided world that don’t need islands no more Are we doomed forever to be at someone’s mercy Little keys can open up mighty doors Rally round the West Indies now and forever.

REZA ABASALI El Socorro