Cricket: Windies reputation gone with the wind

By RICHARD BOOCK

Back in December, a Christchurch photographer was causing great mirth in the West Indian camp as he recorded the image of all 16 squad members.

"Name?" he'd ask after snapping each player, and eventually a deadpan reply came back: "Lara". Chortles all round. Much averting of faces. "How do you spell that?" the photographer followed up - not noticing several players behind him fold in silent laughter.

The West Indian skipper's eyes locked on the pixman's for the first time. "L ... A ... R ... A," he offered with almost exaggerated patience. "Okay, that's great," came the reply from behind the lens. "Now, what's your first name?"Suffice it to say that by the time this exchange had finished - including an inquiry of whether "Brian" was spelt with a "y" or an "i" - Lara and the photographer were the only people in earshot still standing.

So perhaps it was this air of comedy which prompted Courtney Walsh to make the comment which, by the end of the tour, had not only become outrageously funny, but also a fair reflection of one of the biggest problems facing West Indian cricket.

"You wanna hear a joke?" the ageing fast-bowler asked the detail-hungry photographer, who nodded. "New Zealand cricket," he laughed, and turned back to his team-mates.

Six weeks on and the feeling seems to be - right joke, wrong team.

Having professed their desire to begin 2000 on a winning note, the West Indies headed home this week after one of the most humiliating chapters in their impressive history, being swept 2-0 by New Zealand in the tests and 5-0 in the one-day internationals.

Perhaps the biggest irony was that the ill-fated one-liner was delivered by Walsh, who, as it transpired, should never have been here in the first place and whose selection appeared to have more to do with his proximity to the world wicket-taking record than his form, or the balance of the squad.

The 37-year-old paceman was only a shadow of the bowler who toured here as captain in 1996 and although only 11 wickets short of Kapil Dev's world mark of 434 when he arrived, could add just three more as the Windies crashed by nine wickets in the first test and an innings in the second.

The extent of their decline, however, could not be attributed solely to issues and decisions surrounding the New Zealand tour and to understand where the slump came from is to understand the complex and unique structure of the "West Indies" - a loose confederation of fiercely independent nations, which get together for only one main reason - cricket.

Because of that, administrative reform in the Caribbean is far more complicated than anywhere else, leading to inevitable problems in terms of resources and funding and an inability to maximise returns from cricket's contemporary money- spinner, the one-day game.

What happened in New Zealand over the past month seemed to be a manifestation of a vast problem now facing the West Indies - an antiquated administrative system. It is difficult to win a race driving a 40-year-old rust-bucket, and the tourists' lack of science in their preparation, training and analysis suggests they are no longer keeping pace with their rivals.

Their domestic first-class programme is not turning up enough international-class talent - leading to players being picked for the West Indies who have yet to excel at first-class level - and the entire administration is regional and delegate-based, resulting in the inevitable corrosion of parochialism.

For all that, however, this summer's West Indies side could probably point the finger at two underlying reasons for their Antipodean calamity - a superiority complex about playing New Zealand, and some of the most brainless, counter-productive player selections ever seen in modern cricket.

Quite apart from Walsh's quip early in the tour, the West Indies demonstrated their eventually terminal disrespect for the New Zealanders on the second day of the first test at Hamilton, when their recklessness and impatience resulted in one of the biggest turnarounds in the history of the game.

This was the match in which the West Indies became infamous for being the only side in 123 years to lose a test after starting with an opening partnership as huge as 276. Their batting antics on that second day were undoubtedly the catalyst for the nightmare that followed.

Neither were they helped by a series of mystifying selections throughout the tour, both in the tests and the ODIs, which New Zealand were able to exploit to maximum effect.

In the tests the West Indies persevered with the ineffectual Walsh and the erratic Franklyn Rose when Merv Dillon and Pedro Collins deserved an opportunity and, after going 1-nil down at Hamilton, dropped their leg-spinner Dinanath Ramnarine for the more defensive Nehemiah Perry, apparently on account of Perry's superior batting.

Things were just as baffling in the ODIs, particularly when the West Indies rolled out a line-up for the first two matches which might have been selected when Rohan Kanhai was still playing, featuring a straight mix of six batsmen, five specialist bowlers, and a tail starting at No 7.

To be fair, some tinkering to the combination followed and the West Indies were able to bring a measure of balance to the side, but by that stage New Zealand were on a roll and - having often been in similarly-low positions themselves - were not about to let go of the initiative.

Far from being a brains-trust, the West Indian grand triumvirate of manager Clive Lloyd, coach Sir Vivian Richards and Lara consistently failed to appreciate the strategies necessary in New Zealand conditions and by the time they got their heads around the fact that outright pace was not the answer, both series had been lost.

Lloyd announced midway through the tour that he would not stand again for the manager's position, and Sir Vivian - appointed caretaker coach after the illness and death of Malcolm Marshall - may now struggle to get the full-time position on account of his record here and his lack of formal qualifications.

And what becomes of the broken Lara? His ordinary batting aside, the great West Indian run-scorer has now fashioned a captaincy record that has the potential to cause a wide rift in Caribbean cricket, having led his team to a 5-0 series defeat in South Africa (before which, incidentally, he led a strike for more pay), a face-saving 2-2 draw against Australia at home, then to complete humiliation here.

The irony is that the West Indies have a natural leader in vice-captain Jimmy Adams, an experienced, even-tempered individual who, as captain of the A side, gained widespread respect and trust from his players. But he is unlikely to be promoted. And, more to the point, Lara is unlikely to be demoted.

He will be needed again because, rather than attempt any difficult restructuring in the Caribbean, the West Indies will again look to a genius to get themselves out of this mess.