*Official* Australia in West Indies Thread

[Rich2001]

West Indies vs Australia

Well looks like the Australia Test test hasn't lost it's touch over the World Cup.

In the first match of the West Indies tour they have a Crib Beer X1 on the back foot after day 1.

Australia - 337/3 (Waugh 107*, Lehmann 44*)

Hayden and Waugh both hit 100's (Waugh*) And all the other batsman have made solid contributions (Langer 60 & Love 59)

 

[age_master]

should be a good sreies though, lara is in pretty useful touch, he avarages 65 in WI vs Aus, might need to do better than that for them to win the series though,

 

[krkode]

Like I always say, "Waugh's the man" :P

 

[Cloete]

Yeah. He certainly has proven us all wrong hasn't he!

 

[V Reddy]

They require compulsorily Dillon and Lawson to fire and some others to support them. I think the WI batting will do well but it all depends on the WI bowling.

 

[Cloete]

They require compulsorily Dillon and Lawson to fire and some others to support them. I think the WI batting will do well but it all depends on the WI bowling.

Vasbert :P :P

 

[Eclipse]

They require compulsorily Dillon and Lawson to fire and some others to support them. I think the WI batting will do well but it all depends on the WI bowling.

I think Dillon is going to get hammerd because his natrual length is short and If he bowls that to Ponting, Gilchrist, Hayden, Langer, and co he will have no hope.

 

[V Reddy]

Vasbert :P :P

Yeah forgot about him :P .But i think Lawson will be the main bowler and they should forget about Collins.The bowling attack of WI in my opinion should be
Dillon
Lawson
Drakes
Ramnarine.

 

[Cloete]

yeah agreed. do west indies have n e better spinners apart from ramnarine?

 

[marc71178]

WI drop Gayle and name 3 debutants:

Carlton Baugh
David Bernard
Devon Smith


Can anyone shed any light on what they are / do?

From stats, it appears Smith is a batsman, Baugh a batsman who can keep, and Bernard an "dual" player, although Cricinfo doesn't know what he bowls!

 

[Tim]

That surprises me alot. The West Indies seemed to be investing alot into Gayle, and he impressed when NZ toured there last year.

 

[Eclipse]

Gayle has an injury I think.

 

[R_Powell_fan]

No Gayle isn't injured, just something with his eligibility to represent WIs after deciding not to play for Jamaica in the Carib Beer Final against Barbados ( 4-day tournment) and play in the Double-Wicket championship instead....the problem is he didn't take permission from Jamaica to do that.............. or At least I think that is what has happened.

Devon Smith is a young opener who played for the WIs U-19 and 'A' teams, he is technically sound and scored heavily in the Carib Beer Cup, he is considered the most promising opener in the WIs after Gayle, some consider him the best... Over the last year he was knocking on the door and finally got the chance......

Still think Ricardo Powell should've been one of the three.

 

[Rik]

I'm going to have nightmares in the next few weeks...it's happening again. Lara becomes skip then they drop one of their best batsmen for a minor thing and replace him with Ganga who's failed many a time. Do they really want to loose again? Well if they drop their best opener then they will certainly increase their chances...

 

[Anil]

yeah agreed. do west indies have n e better spinners apart from ramnarine?

Nagamootoo...???

 

[full_length]

Re Gayle:
No, if I remember right, it was more of a mixup. WICB has a rule in place that says that players must play the domestic games that immediately precede an international series to be eligible for selection.
Gayle had planned on playing the double wicket tourney and then the domestic game he ended up missing. It so happened that the double wicket tournament was postponed and he missed the domestic game. So according to their rules he has to sit out of the first test.

And Lara as captain is a good choice

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Nagamootoo is a sub standard Test spinner.

Ramnarine is badly out of form with the ball.

Breese is a nagging type of bowler but doesn't turn it much. He's a very good batsman though.

Suleimann Benn is quite a good bowler and he can bat a bit but he has had discipline problems.

Cunningham isn't all that bad a bowler but he can't bat....

Mukesh Persad, IMO is the best spinner in the West Indies. He has had the most consistently good record over the last decade or so of all the regional spinners. For some reason however, the selectors have never even considered him.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

It so happened that the double wicket tournament was postponed and he missed the domestic game. So according to their rules he has to sit out of the first test.

Actually, as much as would like to support Gayle, it didn't just 'so happen'. Gayle was invited to participate, but if he refused, he would have been replaced, possibly by Powell (who played for Gayle in the finals).

Gayle confirmed after his team won the semis and reached the finals. It was a willing decision, purely money based. I expecty he got payed more than 5 times as much as he would have been by Jamaica.

Also, the reason why the double-wicket WC was played during the finals is because India 'A' reached a week late. As a result, their opening game had to be replayed and as such, the semis and final games were pushed back by a week.

 

[full_length]

"Mukesh Persad, IMO is the best spinner in the West Indies. He has had the most consistently good record over the last decade or so of all the regional spinners. For some reason however, the selectors have never even considered him."

Could it be one of the usual reasons:
'too old'
'doesnt fit in' (usually meaning they have made some compromise selecting less no. of bowlers.)
'cant bat'
'cant field' (... if we were talking about India, you could add 'can't throw'!)

There are a whole lot of spinners in India that were/are not selected for these reasons...

(plus one more:
Saurav Ganguly probably doesnt believe left arm spinners deserve to play cricket.. because he finds it easy to hit 'em)

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Still think Ricardo Powell should've been one of the three.

Yep...especially with his brilliant form of late.....4 and 0 in the finals....playing horrible shots I might add....

I just don't think he wants to play Test cricket.