The unsettled state of West Indies cricket dictates that multiple changes are necessary for their recovery. Apart from the problems within the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the bad selection policy of its selectors, the West Indies players should have performed much better in Sri Lanka in the Test and One-Day International (ODI) games.
Jason Holder should have remained as the captain for Test match only. He has too much to deal with as captain of two categories of the game. His personal performances will suffer and too much is being asked of the young captain with a team in which players are failing repeatedly.
MARLON SAMUELS WOULD BE A SPLENDID ODI CAPTAIN
West Indies selectors should have overlooked Samuels’ two-year ban that he has on record and appoint him the West Indies ODI captain. Chris Gayle is not participating in West Indies cricket and the team lacks knowledgeable and experienced players. Denesh Ramdin may soon be gone because his poor performances.
SRI LANKA DOMINATED FIRST 20 / 20
Sri Lanka players displayed some superb batting and bowling in the first Twenty20 as they defeated the West Indies by 30 runs. Sri Lanka batted first and scored 215 runs for 3 wickets off their 20 overs. Kusal Perera and Jillakaratne Dilshan swashbuckled an opening partnership of 91 runs from 9.4 overs. Perera scored 50 from 30 balls before falling first and then Dilshan 56 from 37 while Angelo Matthews scored 37 from 13, Dinesh Chandimal 40 from 19 and Shehan Jayasurya 36 from 22.
WEST INDIES BOWLED OUT FOR 185 IN 19.5 OVERS
Experienced Sri Lanka medium fast bowler Salith Malinga picked up a wicket with his second ball of the West Indies innings when he bowled Johnson Charles. Malinga finished with 2 wickets for 19 runs from 4 overs. Opener Andre Fletcher who scored 54 from 25 balls and Kieron Pollard 26 put up some resistance before the Sri Lankan bowlers penetrated into the West Indies batting.
Man of the Match, Sachithra Senanayake 4 for 46 took the honors.
Note: CARICOM heads of government has requested an urgent meeting with WICB President Dave Cameron. Prime Minister of Grenada Dr. Keith Mitchell who is chairman of CARICOM’s Cricket Governance Committee has been instrumental in getting the systems in place to restore West Indies cricket to some form of respect.
The primary purpose of the meeting is to have the cricket review panel report implemented swiftly and discuss the future of the board and West Indies cricket.
