***Official*** Australia in the West Indies 2015

[Flem274*]

Yeah no matter which way you look at it, dropping an ATG with a million runs and test matches known for his ability to bat long and bat big so your batting is lead by a 26 year old veteran of 35 tests with an average of 43 is madness. As if that wasn't enough, behind the 30 million year old techniqueless talent that is the ever inconsistent Marlon Samuels, the next best batsman is 22 years old and the next best after him is 23 and has 8 tests to his name.

Ramdin is good but he bats deep in the order. Honestly the West Indian batting looks so New Zealand 2011 without Chanderpaul.

 

[Hurricane]

Yeah no matter which way you look at it, dropping an ATG with a million runs and test matches known for his ability to bat long and bat big so your batting is lead by a 26 year old veteran of 35 tests with an average of 43 is madness. As if that wasn't enough, behind the 30 million year old techniqueless talent that is the ever inconsistent Marlon Samuels, the next best batsman is 22 years old and the next best after him is 23 and has 8 tests to his name.

Ramdin is good but he bats deep in the order. Honestly the West Indian batting looks so New Zealand 2011 without Chanderpaul.

I guess he has lost a few admirers over the year in the inner circles of West Indian cricket by batting for red ink so much.

 

[WindieWeathers]

No doubting that Hope has potential, but he's been mismanaged so far IMO:

"Oooh he has a FC double hundred while he's young...get him in the Test team NOW!" was such an incredibly knee-jerk response; he's not an opener and never should have been the one to replace Smith, and I think there's a lot to be said for at least giving guys two-three full seasons of domestic stuff to see if they genuinely are up to it; I mean, no shortage of other sides have been burned before by bringing in promising youngsters on the back of a fantastic debut season only to see them found out and without the knowledge of their games to adapt.

So yeah, exposure at the top level might help him; but he should at least be playing some A-team tours before coming in at age 21. It's not like he's completely dominated FC cricket to date either -- he's been strong this year, but a career average of 32 after 15 games doesn't suggest someone who is plainly too good to learn anything more from domestic cricket.

tl;dr Shai Hope certainly has talent and potential and, but debuting him -- let alone as an opener -- came too early IMO.

Tbh the likes of Darren Bravo averaged about 35 when he made his test debut at a similar age and he most certainly was not scoring double tons. Granted he did have some strong A-team performances before then but he was picked perhaps more on his natural talent than his record at the time.

 

[viriya]

Just saw the Chanderpaul news..

/facepalm WI selection board.

 

[OverratedSanity]

I really don't think it's as big a travesty as people are making it out to be. Chanders doesn't have long left anyway so giving a youngster a series at home in his place isn't a bad idea. I disagree with it, but you really can't say it's that awful a decision or anything.

 

[Daemon]

I don't know, a part of me thinks he should get a farewell test. The selectors can feel that he's not up to it and you can't fault them for that since that's their job description after all, but that's when the board can step in. Sometimes sport isn't about winning. 164 tests should mean something.

 

[viriya]

I really don't think it's as big a travesty as people are making it out to be. Chanders doesn't have long left anyway so giving a youngster a series at home in his place isn't a bad idea. I disagree with it, but you really can't say it's that awful a decision or anything.

imo Chanderpaul could play on till he's 45 and he'll still be the best at his position in WI. "Not much time left" just cos he had a bad series or two.

 

[morgieb]

imo Chanderpaul could play on till he's 45 and he'll still be the best at his position in WI. "Not much time left" just cos he had a bad series or two.

Given his age, you can understand why people think that two bad series = terminal decline. It can happen very fast and sudden, look at Tendulkar for example.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Given his age, you can understand why people think that two bad series = terminal decline. It can happen very fast and sudden, look at Tendulkar for example.

Yeah he literally went from being the best batsman in the world to droppable in 2-3 series.

 

[OverratedSanity]

imo Chanderpaul could play on till he's 45 and he'll still be the best at his position in WI. "Not much time left" just cos he had a bad series or two.

You just never know though, do you? Maybe chanderpaul keeps averaging atleast in the 40s till he's 45 years old. Or maybe he continues being ****e. When do you start considering him making way for a younger batsman and giving him test experience? Sure the 11000 runs he's got should be a factor in the decision, but when you're 40+ it's not easy justifying even a couple of bad series. It's not as though he's 34-35 either, where you could say if he gets back in firm, well surely get another 2-3 good years out of him.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Yeah he literally went from being the best batsman in the world to droppable in 2-3 series.

Similar thing with Ponting, except Australia kept picking him for like 4 years

 

[Dan]

Similar thing with Ponting, except Australia kept picking him for like 4 years

They kept picking Ponting for a lack of top-order alternatives more than anything. Literally had no decent batsmen at that point, so Ponting's experience made him more valuable than, say, if Shaun Marsh had averaged exactly the same at #3 for that period.

If Shiv wasn't one to, erm, bat in a bubble (and had a competent board), he may well have had the same treatment as Ponting.

 

[spudungeyee]

Chanderpaul is fine to carry on as long as he is playing on them slow flat tracks in the West Indies (just like most west indian batsman), but when they go abroad he is as much a liability as the rest his reactions have gone.

 

[Furball]

At least half of his dismissals in the England series were to the noted demon spin twins James Tredwell and Joe Root.

If that's not a sign that it's time to declare your innings closed then I don't know what is.

 

[Tangles]

His dismissals looked really bad and he looked the worst of the middle order. At his age people are just waiting for and expecting a decline.

 

[social]

Had he been picked, would anyone have been truly surprised if Chanders had reverted to norm and ground Oz into the dust?

Probably not

 

[ajdude]

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“I tried to contact you on several occasions but you had already left for Guyana,” Lloyd reportedly wrote. “I rang your home telephone number in Guyana and left my details with a male member of the house requesting that you contact me which he promised to do.

ISR

also #whatwouldtinobestdo #wwtbd

 

[Beamer]

Well the tour is up and running today and I really can't wait to see how our youngsters react to the pressure they'll be under from a very good Australia side. There were so many positive signs during the England tour and I'll be a very happy fan if that progress continues. With Shiv no longer in the picture the performance of the Presidents XI takes on huge significance. I'm pretty sure they will bat Shai Hope in the middle order in the 1st test so if Theopile, Johnson or Chandrika score runs they will almost certainly find themselves in the openers slot with Kraigg. Tbh they all have pretty shocking FC records but Johnson has the best record and looked pretty good opening in his first test. Theopile looked very solid last season so I'm backing either of those two. Chandrika looks so pretty at the crease but gets out for 30s and 40s, he's definitely not ready for international cricket IMHO.

As for Shiv, well I'm pretty devastated as to how the whole thing is handled. I think it was time for him to retire because he was getting out in the most un-Shiv like ways (chipping ordinary finger spinners to cover, stumped down the legside etc) but I wanted him to have until the end of the Australia series so he could get the send off he deserves. Instead he has been treated awfully at a time when it is so tempting for West Indian players to choose domestic T20 tournaments over playing for the West Indies. If this is how the WICB treats one of it's greatest ever servants, how will it treat those that take a risk and choose to play for the West Indies over financial security for their families? Things like this show we don't look after our own at all well so how can we blame people for choosing IPL franchises who treat them so much better? I just think it was a very dangerous thing to do and is yet another example of terrible cricket administration from old fogies who are constantly trying to prove that they have more power than the players.

But now he has gone, it's time to look to the future and I reckon this will be the side for the first test:

Kraigg Braithwaite (VC)
Tyrone Theopile or Leon Johnson
Darren Bravo
Marlon Samuels
Shai Hope
Jermaine Blackwood
Denesh Ramdin (C, WK)
Jason Holder
Veerasammy Permaul or Devendra Bishoo
Jerome Taylor
Kemar Roach or Shannon Gabriel

 

[Riggins]

I wanted him to have until the end of the Australia series so he could get the send off he deserves. Instead he has been treated awfully at a time when it is so tempting for West Indian players to choose domestic T20 tournaments over playing for the West Indies.

such a good point i hadn't thought about.

 

[Spark]

CA are going to stream the tour match on their website, btw Live: Australia v President's XI | cricket.com.au