Davis: WI should stick to four bowlers in England

The West Indies will play England in three Tests – August 17-21 at Edgbaston, Birmingham; August 25-29 at Headingley, Leeds and September 7-11 at Lord’s, London.

In a recent interview, Davis stated, “I don’t believe in five bowlers in my cricket team. I believe in four main bowlers.

“I’m not talking bout these (current crop of WI) bowlers; we’re weak in that department,” he continued.

“A main bowler is somebody who is capable or have the ability to get five wickets in a match, or in an innings; somebody who can win a match for you. If you have four capable bowlers, and then you have a backup bowler, who is usually a steady bowler, even if it’s just to give a (frontline) bowler a rest or to make a change, but a back-up bowler.

“That’s how I view my team when I’m selecting my team.

When you pick five main bowlers, you end up quite weak in batting.

So that is where the problem comes in.

We have no all-rounders like (Sir) Garry Sobers, our all-rounders are very weak all-rounders.” Looking at the state of affairs within the regional squad, Davis pointed out, “The thing is we don’t have that type of ability. We don’t have the wherewithal, meaning the right coaching. I hope now that Stuart Law might be different.

I thought Phil Simmons was definitely first-class and he would have built it up nicely within two or three years but (Cricket West Indies) just got rid of him.

We struggled in that department for a long time.

“We had (Richard) Pybus but now we have Jimmy Adams (as director of cricket).

We have a CEO (Johnny Grave) who sounds more sensible than the rest we had before; he knows more cricket anyway.

Actually they’re getting things moving now, all these administrative changes that are coming is through them. You can read between the lines and see that.” About the regional cricket administrators, Davis stressed, “They must put cricket first, and the playing of the game of cricket. That is what comes first, and no favouritism and using personal animosities against cricketers. If you put that first, that means any sort of mistakes people make, you bring them in and you talk to them.

You don’t put them out of cricket, like what they did with (Nicholas) Pooran and (Darren) Bravo.

You don’t put them out to pasture without a chance of coming back.

So now that we have proper thinking people in Adams and Grave, cricket has to come first.

Davis also made a call for limited-overs opening batsman Evin Lewis to get a look-in, as far as the Test squad is concerned.