Bad luck? Not really

WHILE THE weather, bad luck, even politics may be cited, with some justification, for our failure to qualify for the Super Six final of the World Cup, there is no escaping the fact that, in the final analysis, it was the West Indies disappointing performance which has left us in the cold. True, the showers which washed out the match against Bangladesh robbed us of what should have been an easy win — and four points — against the weakest team in the tournament. True, Kenya, who were demolished by us in our final match last Tuesday, collected four vital points when New Zealand refused to travel to Nairobi because of security concerns. Clearly, a Windies win against Bangladesh and Kenya's almost certain loss to New Zealand would have put us in the finals.

But having said all that, the fact remains that, had the Windies played to expectations, had we performed as a team, had all our players given of their best, the result would have been quite different. In other words, while we did have our share of bad luck, the real cause of our failure lies in the generally poor performance of our players, their inability as a team to rise to the occasion. While our batting was inconsistent and brittle, the regular failure of our openers was a particularly grievous weakness, since they hardly ever provided a good foundation on which the middle order batsmen could build. Gayle's first decent score was his 55 against Sri Lanka and it seems almost laughable that when he finally did come off, it was too late. His robust 119 — the century coming off 143 balls — accounted largely for our decisive victory against Kenya in a last round match which had only statistical value, since we had already been eliminated from the Super Sixes. It seems ironical, too, that the experiment of substituting Chanderpaul for the non-performing Hinds succeeded, but again too late.

In that critical encounter with Sri Lanka — a match we had to win to qualify — both Lara and Hooper, the Windies most experienced batsmen, failed. Their disappointing turn at the wicket at a make-or-break point in the tournament, Lara being caught for one and Hooper out LBW without scoring, might well have sounded the death knell for the Windies. A target of 228 should have been easy going for the Windies, but after Chanderpaul fell for 65, our chances appeared dim, needing an unlikely 43 off 23 balls for victory. However, Sarwan proceeded to turn matters around by his spectacular hitting. The young Guyanese, who had returned to the wicket after being knocked out by a bouncer and treated at hospital, produced a flurry of fours and sixes that brought the Windies within sight of a dramatic win, needing 16 in the last two overs. Muralitharan's tight bowling yielded only two. In the last over, Sarwan edged the second ball from Gunaratne for four but his tail-end partner Dillon was run out with four balls to go and the Windies ended up six runs short of the winning target.

So the great hope we had of bringing the World Cup back to the West Indies has been dashed. Now we must prepare to meet the Australians whose tour of the region begins in Guyana within a month. The expectations we had of fielding a winning team in the World Cup have not been fulfilled and the West Indies Cricket Board must reassess our performance, possibly with a view to making some strategic changes, bringing on young run-getters as Devon Smith and including a recognised spinner on the side. Apart from the Aussie challenge, we must start planning for the 2007 World Cup tournament which will be played at home.