Watching West Indies play cricket is like playing snakes and ladders. One minute you go up the ladder, next move down the snake. They have one brilliant day followed by a disaster. I'd hate to be in the shoes of manager Clive Lloyd or coach Malcolm Marshall. It must be a nightmare trying to get them to bat sensibly. Whatever is said in team meetings has little or no effect.Managers and coaches can't bat for the players. As a batsman, you are on your own once you are in the middle. All the practice and all the talking has to stay and the batsmen must perform. Most of the West Indies troubles stem from poor batting. For every one good performance, there are two or three dreadful collapses. No team can achieve winning results with inconsistent batting. Individually and collectively there is no one you can depend on to get runs. Wallace missed a straight ball. It was almost as if he was asleep and surprised. Lara missed another straight ball and Williams chipped one to short mid-wicket. From that moment on, the team was in trouble. Chanderpaul was stifled under the weight and pressure of the situation. Hooper was the one redeeming feature of the innings. But at no stage did I feel that the West Indies would get themselves out of trouble. That is the most telling aspect of their cricket. Once they are down, you never feel they have the will or the ability to pick themselves up. If they get off to a good start and Lara plays well, then a good total is on the cards. But the great West Indian teams have been able to overcome setbacks - better still not get themselves in bad situation too often. This team very quickly looks down and out as soon as the batting gets in trouble.The West Indian selectors have to take some of the blame. Lloyd and Marshall asked the selectors to pick a squad for Test matches in Pakistan and a different set of players specifically for this Sharjah tournament. Very much on the lines of how Australia and England have decided to go with a view to building a team for the 1999 World Cup in England. The answer was short and negative. The two types of cricket are very different. West Indies have only two all-rounders in Hooper and Simmons.So the lower middle-order is full of bowlers and a wicketkeeper who cannot bat. It is a special type of cricket that requires a re-think by the West Indian Board. Otherwise, they are asking an ordinary team to play with one hand tied behind their back.The player I feel most sorry for is captain Courtney Walsh. He has bowled his heart out for years. He never complains, always gives 100 per cent, had very few injuries and still today, when he is at the end of his career, he turns in good performances. How he must be at his wits end with his batsmen. They rarely do the job and it is he and the rest of the bowlers that have to get the team out of trouble. When results are bad, captains get the blame, even if he personally bowls his guts out the the buck will always stop with him. Even with a modest 197, the team fielded like demons and the bowlers gave it their best shot. In the field, nobody need feels ashamed of their performance but the West Indies are not going to win many matches until the batsmen do better. The bowlers can get you out of a hole sometimes but one-day cricket is a batsmen's game.
