The Blueprint for success

How do West Indies get to the next level?

The West Indies Test team is in a relatively healthy position at the moment all things considered.  One of the most stable squad of players in recent times have just completed an encouraging tour to England.

The Wisden Trophy may have been relinquished, but there appears to be a strong level of unity amongst players and selectors, something which hasn’t always been the case since the turn of the millennium. Despite defeat there is a solid foundation on which to build a successful Test team.

Speaking recently on the “Two Hacks, One Pro” podcast, former West Indies captain, and current CWI Director of Cricket, Jimmy Adams, discussed the newfound focus on the red ball game across the Caribbean. He announced the intention, and indeed expectation, that the West Indies Test team will be challenging at the top of the World Rankings and The World Test Championship in the near future.  

West Indies currently lie 8th in the ICC Test Rankings, just outside a group containing Sri Lanka (5), South Africa (6) and Pakistan (7), although this may change after the latter's impending tour of England.  Clearly these are the countries that the West Indies should have in their immediate sights and be looking to compete with regularly. 

Current World Test Championship table - July 2020

In any isolated Test match, West Indies can compete with all teams. However, the development required to categorise yourself alongside this group is a level of consistency which is far beyond what is demonstrated by the current team.

Ultimately, the resources available to the top nations (with the possible exception of New Zealand) far outweigh those available to West Indies and this may not seem realistic as things stand.

However there are a few methods West Indies can employ to help kickstart their journey up the World Rankings.

1. Rotate the Attack

It is clear that future success for the Test team will be driven by the battery of fast bowlers the West Indies currently possess.  The current crop of Alzarri Joseph, Jason Holder, Shannon Gabriel and Kemar Roach are already amongst the best in the business and can win a Test match in their own right. 

However, the nature of the ever decreasing timespan in which Test series are played, has made Test cricket move towards being a more squad driven format, requiring the ability to rotate bowlers effectively over a short period of Tests without any drop off in performance when doing so. This is something that Australia did to perfection in last year’s Ashes and England have attempted to do in the recent series. 

The good news is that West Indies have depth in their fast bowling although it is untested at international test level. Keon Harding, Raymon Reifer, Chemar Holder, Preston McSween, Anderson Phillip and Marquino Mindley have all performed well in recent domestic Four Day Championship.  Beyond this you have exciting young slingers in Oshane Thomas, Jayden Seales and Nyeem Young who all promise big things. With the exception of Reifer, all the above are under 25, which is incredibly exciting moving forward.

The key over the next few Test series is trying to blood a few of those on the cusp of the main squad, in order to account for potential injuries and be in a position that when you rotate over a Test series, those coming in have existing international experience. 

In the immediacy this should begin with Chemar Holder, Keon Harding and Ramon Reifer. All have evidenced their ability through the recent Four Day Championship, Holder has played at A team level and Reifer made his Test debut on the 2017 tour of New Zealand, therefore the next logical step is greater exposure to Test cricket for each. 

Ensuring plenty of red ball exposure domestically, whether in the Caribbean or as an overseas player elsewhere, for the other bowlers mentioned will be key in continuing development and moving towards a rotation style bowling unit. 

A rotation based attack will provide the ability to tailor your bowling attack based on the specific weather conditions, pitch conditions and opponents batting line up. It also means you can plan how to win Test series, as opposed to merely a Test match. 

Additionally, I would suspect this also has the potential to extend the careers of Shannon Gabriel and Kemar Roach, who can pass on their experience to those breaking through.

2. Develop a Cohesive and Effective Batting Unit

It’s all well and good having an electric bowling attack, however without an effective batting unit, winning a Test Series over three matches becomes almost impossible.

For West Indies, it is the development of a cohesive batting lineup that will bring the required consistency in performance and elevate the Test team to the next level of competitiveness.  The ability to bat time at the top of the order, have players at first and second drop who can anchor an innings and a middle order who can come in and be destructive when the opportunity is presented, will take Test matches away from teams.

There were small glimpses of breakthrough in the batting unit over the recent series.  Kraigg Braithwaite had some good knocks as opener, Shamrah Brooks has made himself undroppable for the foreseeable future and Roston Chase consolidated his ability in being able to read and execute the batting required for the situation he found himself in the match.

However, for all the small shoots of hope there were a million questions raised. John Campbell is not the solution at opener for the moment.  His technique is not suitable for Test match cricket at the highest level and slashing his way to a lucky 30 every four innings is not conducive to a consistent batting order. 

Shai Hope is not a topic for discussion here but clearly he needs some time away and to spend an extended time with the red ball in a domestic First Class competition.  By all means don’t close the door on these players, but the onus is now on them to go away, work on their craft and earn their way back into the Test team.

I wrote previously about the potential of Joshua Da Silva to open and I would like to see that explored over the next few years. Yes, there is the recent tendency to throw young prospects in too early but that was without any sort of stability or foundation in the team surrounding those youngsters. For a team to develop you need to be blooding at least one youngster consistently to keep the evolution of the team turning; I believe Da Silva is that player for the next few Test series. 

There are a number of options to pick from at 3.  However, my suggestion would be to bring Darren Bravo back in immediately.  An axis of Bravo and Brooks in the engine room could provide stability should any early wickets be lost, while also having the ability to move the game on if it is required. 

This would then allow the ability of someone such as Jermaine Blackwood or Shimron Hetmyer to come in and be expansive as opposition bowlers become worn down. A prospective batting line up could look like.

1. Braithwaite

2. Da Silva

3. Bravo

4. Brooks

5. Chase

6. Hetmyer/Blackwood

7. Dowrich

8. Holder

This provides a fairly long batting unit, while also combining patience, stability, destructiveness and scoring ability, right down to number 8.

Ultimately, what should push a batting unit to perform is having strength in depth to put a healthy pressure on the incumbents. If you consider the following “second string” batting unit on the same basis as above, and provide them with the requisite experience in domestic First Class cricket and A team tours, then it provides a pool of players to work with over the next couple of years.

1. Shayne Moseley

2. Jeremy Solozano/John Campbell

3. Brandon King

4. Nkrumah Bonner

5. Shai Hope

6. Nicholas Pooran

7. Keemo Paul

3. Increase Exposure to Competitive Red Ball Cricket

The above areas can only really be developed if the required opportunities are available to players.  It is imperative that Cricket West Indies continue the improvement to the domestic Four Day competition and try their best, finances notwithstanding, to secure more Test matches each year.

It is evident that the quality of the West Indies Four Day Championship has improved dramatically over the last few years. In the aforementioned podcast, Jimmy Adams specifically cited the conscious development and improvement of domestic pitches in the last few years as being critical to the continuing development of red ball talent.

This focuses on the stated aim of avoiding players being raised on wickets they don’t see beyond the Caribbean, with Adams making direct reference to “a generation of one dimensional cricketers who struggled when they left the Caribbean”.

Secondly, and perhaps more pertinently, is securing a greater number of Test matches.  There are a number of factors which will be outside Cricket West Indies (CWI) control here, not to mention the financial cost of hosting test series or touring other countries to play test series.  However, without being able to provide increased exposure for players at the highest level and have the opportunity to develop the areas discussed above against the best opponents, it will be impossible to rise to the desired level.

The ICC rankings are based on a fairly convoluted period cited on their website as “the number of matches played in the 12 - 24 months since the May before last, plus half in the 24 months before that”. Whatever the definition, only Pakistan and Bangladesh have played fewer test matches in this period than West Indies. 

Prior to the series against England, Sri Lanka, perhaps seen as a relatively comparable level, have played 9 more matches over this period.  By comparison, West Indies are currently second (to India) in ODI matches played over the corresponding period.

Now, either CWI are overstating their new found emphasis on red ball cricket, or other countries see West Indies as a much more attractive proposition as one day opponents than Test opponents.

Where we stand coming out of the global pandemic is anyone's guess, however the pre-pandemic direction of travel didn’t provide much hope for increased Test matches. 

The Future Tours Programme had West Indies slated for 2 home tests against South Africa and a 3 Test tour to New Zealand in 2020.  Followed in 2021 with a total of 7 Test matches in the calendar year, 3 away to Bangladesh and 5 at home to Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Again, not enough Test cricket to be able to develop a competitive team consistently. 

More importantly is what happens beyond 2021 as the cricketing calendar gets back to some sort of normality. The next England tour to West Indies is pencilled in for March 2022, with a paltry 2 Test match series and 3 T20s. 

Given the sacrifice West Indies have made in touring England during the pandemic, CWI should demand a 5 Test series as a way to safeguard and improve their red ball development.  Beyond the obvious financial benefits this will provide a real opportunity for some experimentation in rotating a bowling unit, developing some batting combinations and give players more than a slap dash opportunity to prove themselves.

Hosting a successful extended tour could perhaps open the door to the possibility of other countries seeking a similar length of tour to the Caribbean down the line.

From an outsiders point of view, it finally seems that the off field self sabotage, which has been so prevalent in West Indies cricket over the last decade has come to end. Provided they can get funding and implement some of the changes mentioned above it isnt out of the realms of possibility that a truly competitive Test team can be built.

Keep the faith.

Article edited by Machel St Patrick Hewitt

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