I have a very strong suggestion for the West Indies cricket team coach, Roger Harper

Colin Croft18-Nov-2000I have a very strong suggestion for the West Indies cricket team coach, Roger Harper. Simply, leave the West Indies cricket team, all of the players, to its (their) own devices.Now, do not get me wrong here. I am not, repeat, not suggesting that “Harps” should quit his job and go home from Australia. On the contrary, he should be very much there in the team, as an integral part, doing the fielding drills etc., but quietly, without a word. The core of my suggestion is that Harper should not say another word to the West Indies cricket team until AFTER the 1st Test match starts next week, maybe not until the Test actually ends. By extension, his assistant, Jeffrey Dujon, should do likewise.You might wonder why I have come to this conclusion. That answer is very simple.The same West Indies team that managed only 167 on the first day managed to go even one better (or worse) on the 2nd day against Victoria. In six hours of cricket of the 2nd day, Victoria, though some spirited batting, from obnoxious bowling, managed to inflict even more embarrassment to the tourists.Remember, if you will, that this is a Victorian team, which, ironically, has been forced to “rest” two star players, opener Matthew Elliot and captain/fast bowler Paul Reiffel, for varying reasons. In fact, Victoria is “weaker” against the West Indies than the normal “weak” team that is presently at the bottom of the Pura Milk four-day first class competition.Yet, in the six hours of the 2nd day, they managed to make 302 runs from a West Indies cricket team which contained three fast bowlers, Courtney Walsh, Mervyn Dillon and Nixon McLean, all of whom have played Tests, and who would probably comprise the 1st Test attack, with the rested Marlon Black completing the quartet. For this game, leg-spinner Mohendra Nagamootoo has been selected, but that does not make things any better.Now, if all of those facts do not leave the West Indies coaching staff speechless, either from raging anger or true disbelief, then nothing can. A near Test attack, yet the weakest team in Australia, further weakened by injuries, still scores at more that a run a minute, with much more to probably come on Day 3 . Madness, absolute total classical madness!Yet, Roger Harper, despite my thoughts and suggestions, has had much to say anyway. I sincerely hope that his charges would read CricInfo, as I am now fully convinced that Harper’s words are like the proverbial “water on a duck’s back.” His words, like the water, are simple “not sticking.” I am very sure that his team cannot be LISTENING to him at all, even though they might be, most probably are, some probably not, HEARING him speak incessantly.Says Harper: “Tough is a very understated description of this 2nd day. 300 runs in a day is a lot more than we would have liked, a lot more than we wanted, a lot more than the goal we set for ourselves. We could have done a lot, lot better. We were not consistent, we were not accurate enough, we bowled both sides of the wicket, and they (Victoria) just took advantage of it. The message I am trying to get over to these players is that they should be, at this point in time in this tour, tightening up, preparing for the 1st Test.””We may have wanted another match, a nother four day game, to get ourselves better prepared, but this is the itinerary we have been set, and we have to make the most of it, be as well prepared as we can. I do not think that we have given the sort of performance in this match so far (two days) that would say to anyone that we are a team fully prepared to go into a Test match.”This must be deja’ vu for me, as I seem to remember these same thoughts being voiced in the United Kingdom over the last English summer. The venue might have changed, but the reality remains the same. The only continuities are the season, summer, and the non-production of the West Indies cricket team. Harper and his coaching staff simply do not seem to be getting through to the West Indian cricketers.Harper continued: “Of course the responsibility of bringing this team to the boil, so to speak, lies with me, the coach. However, we give the guidance, we give the advice, we put things in place to prepare the players the best we can. I think that we, the players and the coaching staff together, have to share the responsibility. The players themselves have to take some of that responsibility to get the job done when they are in the field.”I remember another coach, former fast bowler Andy Roberts, suggesting, in 1995/6, that “the players were not listening to me.” Folks, I do not know about you, but Harper is saying exactly the same thing here, with just a bit more fancy wording. The coaches of the West Indies cricket team are getting scant results for what they suggest is maximum input from them. They simply are not getting through to the players.Harper went on: “Whether Victoria are at the top or the bottom of the first class standings in Australia does not matter. After two days, they are already nearly 140 runs ahead of us. Worse, they still have seven wickets in hand. On the third day (Sunday) we have to get those wickets for as few runs as possible. It is as simple as that. Then we will just have to try to bat well, bat long, and make a big score in the second innings”I do not think it is that simple at all. The new computerized scoring system that the West Indies scorer now has at his disposal could be educational for the coach, his captain and the bowlers. The batsmen played freely around the wicket, with Brad Hodge, the 26 year old who played so magnificently for his 134 not out, his highest first class score to date, who normally averages just 35.69 runs in first class cricket, doing the real damage. Approximately 70% of his runs were made on the leg side, courtesy of hooking, pulling and generally dispatching, with much disdain, the crappy long hops served up with great consistency by especially Merve Dillon and Nixon McLean. Who told Roger Harper that his fast bowlers could not be consistent? They are just consistently bad! They need to be much, much better, overall.Harper still had more to say: “Sherwin (Campbell) was right. Test cricket is played over five days. I think that he himself was very guilty of slashing and giving his wicket away, and not concentrating and batting a longer period. He showed a lot of grit, but then he undid all of his hard work by playing a very loose shot which the team did not need. Once he went, a few wickets fell immediately after. That is the sort of thing that we are trying to bring to the attention of the team. Once one person gives his wicket away carelessly, it makes it a little more difficult for the other guys.””My immediate reaction and ideas of a cure would be to convince the guys that they are capable of playing much better cricket than they have been doing so far on the tour. There are still two more days available for the game, and we can come out and really show what we are capable of. We have no choice but to come out and play good cricket here. In the context as to how the elongated game is played these days, 300 is a lot of runs in a day. You expect a team to score in the region of 2.5 runs per over, but to score more than 3.0 runs per over, especially against our “Test” attack, is just too many. The consistency was not there. The patience was not there. Too many runs were scored on the leg side and we never really got the ball in the right place often enough.”I disagree with Harper. Having been to South Africa, New Zealand and England in the last three overseas tours for the West Indies, all losing efforts, I would suggest that the bowlers, except Courtney Walsh, have been very consistent, as consistent as they had been on those tours, in the wrong sense. No fast bowler could be considered “good” if he bowls about two acceptable deliveries per six ball over, while the other four are dispatched everywhere. Nixon McLean and Merve Dillon were mediocre, at best, on Day 2 of the game against Victoria. They should be thoroughly embarrassed.That is why I suggest that Harper shut up, literally say nothing at all, and allow the players to “do their own thing.” There might even be some improvement from that. There must be. Most people become more responsible when the responsibility is actually given, or thrust, to them.The final word is still with Harper: “While the 1st Test is around the corner, the very next game, a lot of people also suggested that we were not going to be good enough against Australia in the home series in 1999. What a series that turned out to be. I guess that we will just have to wait and see. I just think that come the Test match, we have to be competitive, which suggests that we must play at our optimum level, for every ball of that game.”What Harper seems to have forgotten is that especially Brian Lara, to a lesser extent Jimmy Adams, and Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose had much to with that drawn series in 1999 in the Caribbean.This is a horse of a different color. Australia are on a roll. If things continue to proceed as they have done over the last two days, the West Indies could find themselves rolled over by the two first class teams that they would have met before the Test, Western Australia and now Victoria. If that were to happen, the stark reality of the situation must be very visible.