South African delight due Lara-less Windies

[marc71178]

Im annoyed, because it doesn't give our players the chance to shine against the very best.

You just had a 5 Test series against England!

 

[sledger]

hmmm kallis is gonna have fun this series if the last one against the west indies is anything to go by, bring on a few more 100s, probably a few more 5 wicket hauls as well

 

[aussie]

aussie

The West Indies squad to face South Africa in the 1st Test:

Wavell Hinds, Devon Smith, Donavon Pagon, Daren Ganga, Shivnarine Chanderpaul (capt), Narsingh Deonarine, Ryan Hinds, Courtney Browne (wk, vice-capt), Corey Collymore, Pedro Collins, Dwight Washington, Daren Powell, Jerome Taylor, Reon King.

I hate to say it, but odds on for an innings defeat.

Apparently Lara did the stand-up thing and responded to his contract offer by posing that the other 6 get picked too. The WICB didn't like the response. No Lara. Bye bye West Indies cricket.

Expected XI:

WW Hinds
DS Smith
D Ganga
S Chanderpaul (C)
NO Deonarine
RO Hinds
CO Browne (wk)
DB Powell
PT Collins
JE Taylor
CD Collymore

my goodness that team looks poor, my mum who is west indian fan and was planning to go to caribbean for the easter holidays but after seeing that squad she changed her mind. But my goodness the west indies are already a struggling unit so this will controversy will just compund their miserly, with no sarwan, gayle, bravo and lara especially Graeme Smith will be licking his lips when he walks on to the pitch for the first test in guyana.

With that Bourda pitch known to be a batsman's paradise i'll back Kallis to get twin centuries or just one cause looking at that west indies line-up south africa could win by an innings

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Why are people suddenly stating that the South African batting will have such a field day against the West Indian bowling? That may well be so, but what does the current situation have to do with that? Is it that people rate Edwards and Rampaul so incredibly highly? Or is it the Bravo factor? As far as I'm concerned, the selectors picked our best bowlers at the moment. Bravo hasn't done any significant bowling since the VB Series, so he's not exactly in form anyway.

It's ridiculous that people would consider the weakness in this West Indies team to be the bowling. It's Lara, Sarwan and Gayle who are missing folks! Be sensible here.

 

[Langeveldt]

You just had a 5 Test series against England!

My point still stands

Nah, to be fair, we are going to have to play Bangladesh soon probably, and after a waste of a couple of months against the Zimbos where Kallis and Pollock would have had more of a productive time in front of the barbecue, I can't be bothered to see another waste of time series..

Lets hope the West Indies play to more than the sum of their parts.. But knowing the West Indies, they will probably do just the opposite

 

[Tim]

I think its also how the bowlers are going to react under Chanderpaul & more importantly how Chanderpaul reacts if his bowlers aren't taking wickets.

 

[Jono]

Why are people suddenly stating that the South African batting will have such a field day against the West Indian bowling? That may well be so, but what does the current situation have to do with that? Is it that people rate Edwards and Rampaul so incredibly highly? Or is it the Bravo factor? As far as I'm concerned, the selectors picked our best bowlers at the moment. Bravo hasn't done any significant bowling since the VB Series, so he's not exactly in form anyway.

It's ridiculous that people would consider the weakness in this West Indies team to be the bowling. It's Lara, Sarwan and Gayle who are missing folks! Be sensible here.

Psychologically. Bowlers bowl under a captain, and often get advice no matter how experienced they are. Lara wasn't the greatest captain but he lead his side, and though I have absolutely no idea as to how good a leader Chanders will be, I'm sure the change in captaincy (and hell this whole situation) will psychologically hurt the whole team, which includes the bowlers.

 

[garage flower]

Still no guarantee that the series will go ahead. The WIPA are almost certainly going to call for strike action if the excluded players aren't recalled.

 

[roseboy64]

I hope they do call for a strike.

 

[Richard]

God, we have just had a series of tackling a bunch of club cricketers who don't mean a lot..

Im annoyed, because it doesn't give our players the chance to shine against the very best.. And any decent performances just tend to get cast aside as "irrelevant"..

Fully expect Kallis to hit a lovely 250, and then everyone lay into him because he didn't score it against anyone decent..

Well... as Liam has said, it's hardly like the attack is much worse than some of the stuff West Indies have put out of late.
And no - his scores against Zimbabwe were irrelevant, just like anything else.
SA should have beaten WI anyway. It's the bowlers, rather than the batsmen, who are in the running for an unexpected field-day.

 

[Richard]

i think we should now take away there test status

This side'd still thrash Zimbabwe and Bangladesh into next week.

 

[Richard]

Hmmm...really weak West Indian side. With the likes of Pagon, Deonarine, Washington and Darren Powell (any relation to Ricardo?) in the squad, the inexperience will definately show. Lara, Sarwan, Bradshaw and Gayle in particular are massive blows IMO, this dispute is doing absolutely nothing to promote the game in the country that will eventually hold the 2007 World Cup!

Dunno whether Bradshaw would've played anyway... not made his Test-debut yet.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Psychologically. Bowlers bowl under a captain, and often get advice no matter how experienced they are. Lara wasn't the greatest captain but he lead his side, and though I have absolutely no idea as to how good a leader Chanders will be, I'm sure the change in captaincy (and hell this whole situation) will psychologically hurt the whole team, which includes the bowlers.

The thing is, only 2 of these bowlers would be accustomed to bowling under Brian Lara anyway. Powell, King, Washington and Taylor have not had much international experience between them (Washington has none and won't have any for a long time yet if I get my way).

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

This side'd still thrash Zimbabwe and Bangladesh into next week.

Agreed. Don't discredit the likes of Deonarine either. Pagon isn't ready IMO, but both he and Deonarine are very exciting prospects. Look at what Deonarine did against the Aussies when they toured a couple years back.

 

[Richard]

Err... OK, I will.

 

[Adamc]

This is ridiculous. Chris Gayle just scored 131 and 150* in a domestic final and won't be in the side. Though I hope the West Indies don't get humiliated it wouldn't do them much good if they did well in the series, as this would probably result in the WICB not bothering to get the contracts sorted out.

 

[LongHopCassidy]

The only way to bring back Lara and co. is if this side does get humiliated.

 

[garage flower]

Dunno whether Bradshaw would've played anyway... not made his Test-debut yet.

Bradshaw isn't among the 7 affected players, but I wouldn't pick him. Don't see him taking test wickets.

 

[garage flower]

Err... OK, I will.

Richard, be careful, that was dangerously close to being amusing.

 

[garage flower]

The thing is, only 2 of these bowlers would be accustomed to bowling under Brian Lara anyway. Powell, King, Washington and Taylor have not had much international experience between them (Washington has none and won't have any for a long time yet if I get my way).

I understand your point, that it's the batting that's been hit far hardest by the dispute, but do you really have much faith in the bowlers troubling South Africa, particularly in Bravo's absence?