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Spin bowling: The undermining factor in West Indies cricket |
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Aug 05, 2009 at 12:00 AM |
By Alan Harris
DESPITE West Indian spin bowlers consistently dominating at the regional First-class level, spin bowlers have remained very scarce in and around the West Indies set-up of late.
Not since the great off-spinner Lance Gibbs, has the West Indies had a specialist spinner take over 100 wickets at the Test level.
It has to be said that the West Indies selectors have tried a few spinners since the 1980’s, but none were, or have been given any extended run in international cricket. Even though it is known that spin bowlers take a longer time to develop their craft than that of medium pacers and fast bowlers, West Indian spinners are tried for one or two Test matches at a time, then discarded. Examples of spinners in the West Indies being thrown by the way side are countless and boundless, but the one which really stands out is plight of Rajindra Dhanraj, the former West Indian and Trinidadian leg-spinner who played each of his four Test matches in a different country and in different series.
‘Lepers’, is the best word to describe spin bowlers in West Indian cricket and there are two fundamental reasons for this. The first, as has been aptly pointed out by many Caribbean journalists over the years, is selective dwelling in the past.
Names like Sonny Ramadhin, Alf Valentine and Lance Gibbs are part of the West Indies’ spin legacy, but the ‘dominant’ and ‘supreme’ West Indies team of the 80s and early 90s, had a barrage of pacers that intimidated batsmen of the highest calibre the world over. The current West Indies, though laden with a surplus of below-average fast bowlers, continue to search in vain for the devastating fast-bowling quartet of the 80s. The unprecedented success of the West Indies with a quartet of fast bowlers seduced the cricket hierarchy and, frankly, the cricketing public, into thinking that spin bowlers were not or could not be part of a winning formula: mistake number one.
Secondly, young fast bowlers have been given numerous chances to prove themselves on the international stage. One glaring example was the lacklustre performances of Daren Powell. A fast-medium, and highly unimpressive bowler who only took 85 wickets from 37 matches, his under-achievements were not mentioned enough. During the same period in Test cricket, Dinanath Ramnarine (leg-spinner) took 45 wickets from 12 matches and Dave Mohammed (left-arm spinner) 13 from 5. Yet, the spin bowlers were not “good” enough for Test cricket. Statistics prove that they are not given a decent run and have equivalent or better wicket-per-match ratios than the faster bowlers.
Now, fast forward to today. The West Indies team, though not up to ‘full strength’, have been whitewashed in both the Test and ODI home series against Bangladesh; a team referred to in the cricket world as the ‘minnow’ of the international game. What beat the West Indies? Simply put, spin bowling. Playing on pitches in the Caribbean that offered no assistance to the pace-heavy West Indies attack, but offered turn and bounce to the Bangladeshis spin, the West Indies batsmen were humbled and humiliated by the Bangladeshi spinners. But the pitch being slow and the bowling being tight does not explain the extent of West Indies’ struggle against spin.
If one were to objectively look at the bigger picture, the loss to Bangladesh highlighted and cemented the fact that our batsmen are clueless and appear embarrassing when faced with someone tweaking the ball. They are, albeit harsh, incapable of playing spin bowling. This is because the West Indian cricket hierarchy since the 80s and early 90s, has not respected the art of spin bowling. West Indies cricket has long had an uncomfortable relationship with spin, whether batting or bowling. Now it has come full circle to where we are today.
The West Indies has not developed any specialist spinners while the batsmen have never learnt to respect and play good spin bowling. This inherent and devastating bias towards spin bowling will keep and has kept the West Indies team firmly entrenched at the base of the cricket hierarchy for years to come.
What a travesty!
www.barbadosadvocate.com
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