T20 World Cup preparations on track

 

Based on its performances in the first two matches of its current three-match Home Series against Bangladesh, the West Indies team’s preparations for this year’s ICC T20 World Cup would now appear to be solidly on track. The already almost complete identification of the 15-member squad that could potentially represent the West Indies at the Australia-hosted forthcoming ICC T20 World Cup, definitely qualifies as one of the better occurrences in Caribbean cricket at this July midpoint of its current year.

In the first two completed matches of the current, ongoing, three-match series against Bangladesh, both of which were played in Dominica, the West Indies performed most admirably. In the first T20, they bowled extremely well to restrict Bangladesh to 105/8 in the 13 overs that were possible before the rain again intervened to cause the abandonment of any further play. In the second their top-order batsmen, particularly the newly appointed vice-captain Rovman Powell, came to the fore to post a 193/5 first-strike, allocated 20 overs, total. That eventually proved to be 35 runs out of the reach of Bangladesh’s batsmen.

Powell’s 28 balls 61 not out, which included 2 thunderous sixes and 6 fours, was an absolute delight to watch. Not only for its wonderful effect on the West Indies innings but also because of its evidential suggestion of his continuing maturity and accepted responsibility as the crucial number five in the team’s batting order.

     Powell’s demonstrated prowess is a yet further indication that the West Indies’ potential 2022 World Cup 15-member squad may now have already identified itself. With the exceptions of arguably Kyle Mayers, Shamarh Brooks, Odean Smith and Kemo Paul, the remaining seven members of the XI that played in the second T20 against Bangladesh should, barring injury or any other unforeseen developments, now be considered shoo-in certainties for seats on the plane to Australia.

Few would dare to dispute the claims of Brandon King, skipper Nicholas Pooran, Rovman Powell, Romario Shepherd, Akeal Hosein, Haydn Walsh and Obed McCoy to be on that flight. Add to those the rested Alzarri Joseph, as well as the absent but hopefully eventually returning Evin Lewis, Shimron Hetmeyer, Jason Holder and Fabian Allen, and then twelve of the final fifteen would have now firmly identified themselves.

Devon Thomas was impressively tidy behind the stumps in the first, abandoned, T20. Sufficiently so to justify his inclusion as the backup wicket-keeper and thirteenth member of the squad.

That would then leave only two available spots remaining to be contested seemingly among Mayers, Brooks, Smith and Paul. With one of the spots likely to be given to a batsman and the other to a bowler, Mayers and Brooks will likely contest the former, while either Smith or Paul would be the choice for the latter. The final decision as to the best choice for either position should become evident from the contestants’ respective performances during the West Indies’ remaining T20 encounters prior to their World Cup departure.

Having the composition of its potential 15-member squad for the forthcoming T20 World Cup more or less already identified, months in advance of the tournament’s commencement, is one of the better developments to have occurred at this July midpoint stage of Cricket West Indies’ (CWI) year 2022. After the indisputable horribilis annus that was 2021, West Indies cricket would have been hoping for a much-improved 2022.

With six months already completed, however, even the most cursory mid-year review would now suggest that while some good has been accomplished there have also been some noticeable shortcomings that can only be labeled as “bad.” There have also been others which sadly can now even be justifiably described as outright “ugly!”   

The West Indies’ successive Test Series victories against first England and then Bangladesh which have resulted in a current sixth-place ranking on the ICC’s Test Championships Points Standings has definitely been one of 2022’s most positive developments. So too has the Desmond Haynes-lead selection panel’s performance of its duties.

The squads selected by Haynes and his fellow selectors to date have been delightfully almost totally lacking in any major controversial inclusions or omissions. Even more welcoming has been Haynes very logical explanations of the choices that have been made from one series to the next.   

CWI’s announcement of its establishment of an Antigua Coolidge Cricket Centre-based annual Academy has also been a wonderful, good news, development. So too has the subsequent, recent, identification of the eighteen “rising stars” talented players who will constitute the Academy’s very first student body.

CWI has yet to announce the appointed faculty for the Academy’s first year. It is hoped that some of the West Indies’ former greats, particularly the available Antiguan legends such as Sir Andy Roberts, Sir Viv Richards and Sir Curtly Ambrose, will be involved in some manner.

The need for increased levels of involvement of its former legends in West Indies cricket is one of the easily identifiable areas for much-needed improvement that Caribbean cricket followers would have hoped to witness this year. Instead as the outstandingly experienced Caribbean cricket journalist, Jamaica’s Ray Ford, has noted, CWI now appears to be wrongfully headed in an opposite direction, at least in terms of its apparent priorities.

Ford recently publicly expressed his dissatisfaction that at the exact time of the West Indies 94th year anniversary of its entry to Test cricket, CWI under its current Ricky Skerritt leadership was announcing its involvement with the “6ixty!” The latest form of the sport’s abridged money-oriented formats that have served as financially attractive beacons to lure the Caribbean’s very best players away from committing themselves to representing the West Indies in Tests.

As a very knowledgeable, widely respected, Caribbean cricket journalist, Ford’s longstanding and ever-increasing dissatisfaction with the manner in which West Indies cricket has been and is being managed, has resulted in his decision to throw his hat into the ring of contention for the Cricket West Indies Presidency at next’s year’s scheduled elections. The reasons for his subsequent decision to do so were publicly outlined in a Trinidad Daily Express .doc article that was published as far back as January 8, 2020.

If CWI’s wrongfully skewed current priorities can be classified as “bad,” then the globally televised images of the almost empty stands during the Antigua and St Lucia hosted Tests against Bangladesh should rightfully be described as being downright ugly. Except for the token invitation that was extended to a few scores of schoolchildren to attend the first day of the St. Lucia Test, CWI’s marketing promotion of both matches left much to be desired.

Despite the reported presence of hundreds of cricket-inclined British tourists in both Antigua and St Lucia at the time of the Tests, there was apparently little or no promotional presence of the matches, either in the form of purchased advertising or even freely provided news reports, within the local media of either island territory. The hotels where such tourists would have been staying were reportedly also not engaged in promoting the matches to their guests in any manner.

There is, therefore, evidently still much work to be done by CWI as it continues its efforts towards experiencing a much improved 2022, and to avoid having this year again labeled as yet another horribilis annus. While CWI strives towards achieving the required improvements, the West Indies team’s fans and followers, wherever they may be, will be hoping for an extended continuation of the positive results-producing performances that have been forthcoming of late.                           

About The Writer:

Guyana-born, Toronto-based, Tony McWatt is the Publisher of both the WI Wickets and Wickets/monthly online cricket magazines that are respectively targeted toward Caribbean and Canadian readers. He is also the only son of the former Guyana and West Indies wicket-keeper batsman the late Clifford “Baby Boy” McWatt.