Only a day after West Indies endured one of its worst performances in nearly a century of playing test matches, the president of the Caribbean cricket board was looking to the past to improve the future.
WICB president Kishore Shallow on Tuesday said he plans to enlist Caribbean cricket greats such as Viv Richards and Brian Lara to help a West Indian lineup that scored just 27 runs in its second innings – one run short of the all-time test record for low totals — while losing the third of three tests to Australia.
The batting collapse continued a pattern for the West Indian test team — it hasn't won a test series since 2022-23, when it beat Zimbabwe in the Caribbean.
Since then it has drawn three and lost five series. It was swept in 3-0 over the last few weeks at home against Australia, culminating in the humiliating defeat in the third test on Monday.
Shallow had seen enough.
“The result hurts deeply, not only because of how we lost, but because of what West Indies Cricket has always represented to our people: pride, identity, and possibility,” Shallow said in a statement.
“There will be some sleepless nights ahead for many of us, including the players, who I know feel this loss just as heavily. We are in a rebuilding phase, steadily investing in the next generation, and reigniting the spirit that has long made West Indies cricket a force in the world.”
Indeed it was a force. By the late 1970s, the Caribbean side was recognized as unofficial world champions, a title they retained throughout the 1980s thanks to batters like Richards complemented by feared bowlers like Curtly Ambrose.
Now, Richards, known fondly at times as Sir Viv after receiving a British knighthood for his services to cricket, will be part of the rescue package. Shallow said he had ordered an emergency meeting to review the Australia test series, “particularly the final match.”
Some of the fast bowling produced against Australia in the series resembled the days when West Indies' pacemen dominated the world of cricket, but batting deficiencies let the team down badly.
“To strengthen the discussions, I have extended invitations to three of our greatest batsmen ever: Clive Lloyd, Vivian Richards and Brian Lara,” Shallow said. “They will join past greats Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Desmond Haynes and Ian Bradshaw."
Lloyd, who is 80, was a West Indies captain and leading figure of the team's overwhelming success in his era. He scored 19 centuries in his 110-test career that ended in 1984. The 73-year-old Richards scored 24 centuries in 121 test matches.
Lara, who retired in 2006, scored 34 centuries in 131 tests. He holds the record for the most runs scored in a test innings — 400 not out against England in 2004. It remains the only quadruple century in test cricket.
It's not clear whether the support group will help in the shorter formats of ODI and Twenty20 cricket. West Indies have had 3-0 series losses this year to England in both formats. On the plus side, the Caribbean team drew an ODI series and won a T20 series in Ireland.
Shallow insists he's not paying lip service to the chaos surrounding the test team, which played its first test matches in England in 1928, losing the series 3-0.
“This engagement is not ceremonial,” Shallow said. “These are men who helped define our golden eras, and their perspectives will be invaluable as we shape the next phase of our cricket development.”
___
AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket
Dennis Passa, The Associated Press
