**** West Indians no Aptitude for Test Cricket ? ****

As Amla and deVilliers 'struggle' to establish a partnership, I wondered why this generation of West Indian players do not appear to have the aptitude for test cricket!

There are a very few exceptions, but most players neither appear to have the propensity nor the diligence to apply themselves to test cricket.

This cannot be said of past eras but both batsmen and bowlers have little patience and seem more at home in the shorter format!

Bowlers are not prepared to put in the work, be patient and let the batsmen make errors. During today's play, Gabe was generating some real pace but instead of maintaining what he was doing, he tried to mix it up and released the pressure! That is just an example as I am not singling Gabe out for the rod.

Holder does not look threatening but at least he sticks to the basics. Such a shame he has not developed any pace. In fact Rampaul looks more of a threat.

Batsmen just want to make ball contact and play a shot per ball and they are not learning, even the likes of Samuels!

Thoughts?

The problem is that the WI first class cricket is very poor.

When bowlers get cheap wickets in "dung heap" without having to work real hard to do so then when they come up against the likes of Amla and DeVilliers they don't have a clue what to do when the going gets rough.

Last year we saw it in New Zealand when the WI batsmen were all at sea against the swinging ball.

The WICB have tried various things and none has worked. We had the HPC which was supposed to hone the skills of the young players. Now we have the extended first class season.

What makes it even more difficult is that the all the various territories are independent so even if a comprehensive plan was developed there is nothing to force the various territories to implement the plan.

Even in the so called mecca of cricket, Barbados, I heard folks who know talking about how poor the local cricket is in Barbados.

Our batsmen are just not exposed to enough good bowling at home, and haven't learnt how to pace and build an innings. You need to make centuries at the domestic level frequently before you figure out how to construct a good innings. They're not playing enough domestic games to pick up the subtleties of doing this.

When our players reach the international stage, they're thus playing catch up. Often they're discarded before they've "caught up". Almost always, they play better toward the end of an international series, when they've become accustomed to bowlers.

Our bowling is worse. We have no penetrative bowlers, none who are willing to bowl the same good delivery over long spells, Roach keeps breaking down and our more dangerous spinners, Narine and Badree, dont get to play tests.

We should bribe England to let us play in they county cricket circuits.

* The reality is the West Indies does not produce caliber cricketers.

* Take a look at the first class batting average of WI cricketers. In the current WI team, only Brathwaite(43.63) and Shiv(55.35) have first class averages above 40.

* Any batsman who averages in the 30s in first class will struggle to average 40+ in tests.

* Regarding WI bowlers----none averages 4 wickets per match at the first class level.

BOTTOM LINE:

* The WI is ranked #8 in the world in tests because the WI does not produce caliber players in first class cricket.

* THE NUMBERS DON'T LIE.

Rev

MAIL,

De WI like a mid table Championship side playing Chelsea in 3 games at Stamford Bridge.

Doan expect miracles. If we lucky we might get a goal (or 2). Leh we hope we aint get beat 10 - 0 in every game.

See it right deh.

WI like Tranmere Rovers. Swansea making it look real easy. Now 4 -1 to Swansea.

Dats it right dere - WI is Rovers ::LOL::

Oh crap like I talk too soon. Rovers shwing a lil fight, like de windies.

Aptitude aint got nuthin to do wid it , more like attitude 

Well you could have a great attitude but because you never come up against ting like dat you flummoxed.

I jess see it wid Rovers. Dem fellas aint accustomed to being attacked with precision like Swansea doing to dem and so dem trying but they all at sea.

Gentlemen,

Some interesting points.

However the mental aptitude and strength of players, particularly batsmen, have little to do with the deficiencies of pitches and standard.

Those batsmen with the right approaches and attitude should bat, bat long and score tons! Their averages should be in the 50s and 60s even 70s if we are to believe the concept of 'dung heap cricket'!

Yes batsmen may still have a major gap to bridge when at International standard but at least mentally they are prepared to occupy the crease having already done it.

So yes pitches need to be better, but for bowlers mentally it does not mean you should not have the discipline and control on non responsive pitches although this could be soul destroying when poor pitches are all you are faced with!

So aptitude, intelligence, is an important part of the issue as one has to learn and batsmen and bowlers are not.

Perhaps batsmen are falling for the hype of 'Calypso' batting meaning scoring a 25 at a 65 strike rate in tests!

So I see the issue to be, with both batsmen and bowlers, lack of mental strength, a will to succeed, impatience, laziness and all the plugging of the HPC has not worked at all!

The talent is there but aptitude and attitude are sadly lacking.

Crease occupation....look at the SRs of both Amla and deVilliers during the first half of their innings?

However when it comes to T20s and ODIs the attention span required is limited and they do better....