Sunday, May 01, 2005

From Good To Great

Chris Gayle is on a rampage - the man has scored 162 in even time as I write - which makes me tear my hair in despair as to why it has to come to this every time - the series lost and the pride almost irrecoverably lost before these talented young West Indians fire.

Yes, as much as I try to deny it, the similarity is uncanny. All through the 90s Sachin Tendulkar used to fight vain losing battles for India - that time too there were "good" players like Dravid and Ganguly and Laxman around. What was required was to take the next step to greatness. In due course Dravid did, and the other two flirted around it.

This is exactly what is happening with the West Indies right now. Lara is virtually single-handedly trying to ward off the enemy !! There can be no doubt about the talent that both Gayle and Sarwan possess - varying talent I might add - for young players, remember they are only 25 and 24, their averages of 37 and 41 are also fairly decent. Unfortunately they cant afford the luxury of time to attain greatness. They need to do so now while Brian Lara is still around otherwise it will be the end of West Indies cricket as we know it and it will be too late for them to exhibit their works.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

WI cricket will survive. You make all this play about how we have subsided and no one doubts that but remember we are going through transition and we yet to find out feet. In due time we will be back to our best. Remember we have about 5-6 bowlers who can propel the ball at higher than mid 80 mph. No team can boast that. And once they get experience we will no doubt be competing if not winning.

Gaurav said...

Yes Rustam. I hope and pray that it will not only survive but emerge strong enough to challenge the best and the confidence and faith of fans like you comes as a huge relief.

I am not sure about your bowling attack though. You do have a couple of young tearaways in Best and Edwards, but both are extremely raw. Collins has played for a long time but only with limited results. Dillon and King looked the part but only for a while. Where are they gone now ?? Rampaul, Lawson etc etc .. they just come play a couple of maches, go, get injured, there seems to be no concerted effort to nurture anyone. What about the new lad Washington ?? I thought you should have stuck with Omari Banks but I dont know where he is now.

Yes the bowling is a huge worry. But first I am hoping that you get the batting in order. Once, you do that at least you can hope to save matches - then you can think of winning them. It is hard to fathom how a team boasting the great Brian Lara, the consistent Chanderpaul, the hugely talented Sarwan and Gayle and the promnising Bravo consistently produce such mediocre performances

Anonymous said...

i agree but i think we will go through the same process of regeneration that india did. Once we get the fitness of our players up we will become world competitors again.

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