If I were to select three major reasons why the West Indies faltered badly in the effort to win the ICC T20 World Cup, I will list in no particular order of importance, one, the headset of our batsmen to hit the long ball into the stands, which often becomes the cause of their downfall. Two, the absence of team cohesion with a definable execution of a plan to match the circumstances of a particular game was also a major failing in this and previous tournaments. Third, the team did not possess that undeniable spirit needed to impose themselves on their opposition, which was needed to win against England and South Africa; remembering that with the exception of New Zealand, the victories were against second-string opponents. The continuing failure to plan to constantly turn over the strike and add to the score in singles, twos, and threes between the 6s and 4s was detrimental.
This was the result of a lack of strategic planning and clever running between the wickets, with the batsmen seemingly incapable of dissecting the field. In the game against South Africa, which determined the team got into the semis, the West Indian batsmen did not score off nearly half of the 120 deliveries they received. Nine point three of the 20 overs faced were maidens.
A team cannot cede such an advantage to their opponents and expect to win in limited-overs games. The six-hitting strength developed by the West Indian batsmen often became a weakness as too many batsmen engaged in reckless and unthinking failure to discern the right balls to hit and the places to hit them in the field.
What I call the “hoik” over mid on-midwicket was the downfall of many batsmen; not only that many hits were misdirected and misjudged, but in several instances, the sixes were attempted immediately, and a batsman got to the crease without making an assessment of the conditions, the objectives of the bowlers and fielding team, and importantly, the approach needed in the circumstances of the game. In addition to not being clinical in their assessment of which ball to hit for six and to what part of the field, their reputation as six hitters has driven many to arrogance in the belief they are capable of converting any delivery into a six as six-hitting machines.
In the games won by the West Indies against relatively weak opposition teams, there was no need for strategic planning and effective implementation of the plan, individual player superiority over the opposition was sufficient to achieve victory.
The bowling unit was on occasion tight and strategic, but never really threatening to dismantle an opposition and not particularly decisive towards the end of an innings. The example of Romario Shepherd being hit for three sixes off the first three balls of the last over, which potentially put the New Zealand lower-order batsman in a position to steal the game away, said it all about the absence of having a capable bowler to finish the innings without being struck to all parts of the field.
But above and beyond the details of the on-field play, a major contributory factor to the defeats when winning mattered, was the lack of a sense of the team being an aggressive, decisive, and cohesive group of players organised and functioning in a manner to conquer their opponents. This systematic, well-organised, and enthusiastically inspired approach with a determination that they can and will triumph over any circumstance was non-existent, and the deficiency observable on the field when tight situations presented themselves to be overcome.
That feature of the great West Indian teams of the past was completely absent, or at best, a very weak disposition of the team of the present. The team members lack the ruthlessness to win, they are shorn of the spirit and confidence that make a great team. Desperately insufficient is the self-belief to conquer the opposition particularly when a fight is on the agenda.
In the South Africa game, after the indiscriminate, unthinking flop of Hope and Pooran, Mayers and Chase (the latter being one of the few with the capacity for thought, effort and a disposition to fight to survive and conquer) showed spine and the capability to counter the incision of the South African bowlers and fielders and so put on a gritty and sensible partnership (80-plus runs) which accounted for 80-plus of the eventual 135 total.
Thereafter, the effort to put on a reasonable score capable of challenging the South African batsmen crashed in an uncoordinated scramble-headed race, a telling blow being the unnecessary runout of Russell, the one left with the capacity to hit a few sixes to extend the score.
It’s that spirit of triumph of the great West Indian teams and their leaders of the past that is absent and the one most needed to convert even quality players into an indestructible unit on the field. There were occasions in the past even when the team included world-class individuals but did not achieve greatness until leaders such as Worrell and Lloyd came along to inject invincibility into the team.
Tony Rakhal-Fraser – freelance journalist, former reporter/current affairs programme host and News Director at TTT, programme producer/current affairs director at Radio Trinidad, correspondent for the BBC Caribbean Service and the Associated Press, graduate of UWI, CARIMAC, Mona and St. Augustine – Institute of International Relations.