Windies must step up their game (24 May 1999)

24 May 1999

Windies must step up their game

Tony Cozier in Southampton

Whether they progress any further in the World Cup will not be officially determined until their last preliminary group match against Australia in Manchester next Sunday. But the West Indies' destiny will be shaped in their encounter against New Zealand here today.

To give a somewhat different slant to the well-worn cliche, it is not so much whether they win or lose, although that is clearly important, but how they play the game that is critical. It will show whether they have the passion and the desire without which no team, especially one with definite structural weaknesses, can hope to succeed in a tournament of such nationalistic intensity.

In their two previous matches, such fervour has been patently absent. In both, they slackened their grip and allowed Pakistan and Bangladesh to score 30 or so runs more than they should have. In the formercase, it meant defeat; in the latter, embarrassment.

Wides have proliferated, simple catches have been dropped and the ground fielding was inferior even to the fledgling Bangladeshis. Above all, their approach, especially against Bangladesh, was lackadasical, a casual acceptance of victory even before a ball was bowled.

"Shabby and unprofessional," was how Sir Viv Richards put it in his television commentary. Michael Holding, on the other channel, was no more complimentary.

Conditions, it is true, have been unfavourable. The pitches have been slow enough to disrupt the timing of batsmen who have spent the last six months on the harder, faster surfaces of South Africa and the Caribbean. Bristol was overcast and chilly, Dublin was more like Iceland than Ireland.

But it has been the same for everyone and South Africa, Pakistan and, more to the immediate point, New Zealand, have not been obviously inconvenienced. As was evident just recently in the home series against Australia, the West Indies' mood can be swiftly changed and self-confidence immediately restored by a burst of Brian Lara's genius.

Favouring his bothersome wrist injury, the captain had a lengthy lay-off following his withdrawal after three One-Day Internationals against Australia. He was short of practice and form and it has showed in his two brief innings so far (11 off nine balls against Pakistan, 25 off 25 balls off Bangladesh).

Yet he did not do much in the 1996 World Cup either before blazing 111 off 94 balls that put the favoured South Africans out of the tournament in the quarter-final. The New Zealanders will be wary of such a scenario today as will the Australians, who have had more recent first-hand experience, next Sunday.

All of the other top-order batsmen have got useful runs and time in the middle and Lara has pronounced himself satisfied with the way they have quickly clicked. They are now waiting for him to fall in line.

The greater worry is with the support bowling for Courtney Walsh, whose figures (20 overs, seven for 53) have once more underlined his enduring quality, and Curtly Ambrose, who returns today after resting his sore shoulder in the Bangladesh match and the fielding that has mirrored the overall attitude.

There have been 48 wides, or eight additional overs, in the two matches and any number of additional runs from uncertain fielding.

There are two areas that do not concern New Zealand. They have given away only ten wides in their two matches and the standard of their fielding is not far short of South Africa's.

They possess no stars - no Lara, no Walsh, no Ambrose - but they compete fiercely and as a team and have the type of swing and seam bowlers, between fast and slow-medium, ideally suited to the white ball and the sluggish surfaces in England at this time of the year.

They also start with the advantage of two wins from two matches, following their stunning victory over Australia at Cardiff on Thursday.

It is always their most satisfying result and, in the present tournament, it could be their most significant.

Australia's defeat by Pakistan in a high-scoring thriller at Headingley yesterday was their second in three matches and, whatever happens today, certainly means they have to beat the West Indies on Sunday to qualify for the Super Sixes.

Defeat today would place the West Indies in the same position. To avoid it, they have to shake off the lethargy that overcame them in their opening matches and be more purposeful in their attitude.

This, after all, is the World Cup.

West Indies (from): Brian Lara (captain), Sherwin Campbell, Ridley Jacobs, Jimmy Adams, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Stuart Williams, Phil Simmons, Merv Dillon, Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh and either Reon King or Hendy Bryan.

New Zealand: Stephen Fleming (captain), Matthew Horne, Nathan Astle, Craig McMillan, Roger Twose, Chris Cairns, Adam Parore, Chris Harris, Dion Nash, Gavin Larsen, Geoff Allott.

Source :: The Barbados Nation