West Indies savaged amid woeful Test scenes: 'Less than a Shield side'
There's a new cricket drinking game doing the rounds in lounge-rooms across the country. Every time a commentator mentions the great West Indies sides of yesteryear, take a swig of your preferred drop and forget about mowing the lawns for another day.
I guarantee you will be speaking Swahili by the lunch break because the references to the Windies' past are as relentless as the chin music any one of their famous pace quartets trotted out in a memorable 15-year dominance of world cricket in the 80s and 90s.
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The comparisons to the Calypso Kings were there again on day three of the Adelaide Test as Jason Holder did his best to stem the bloodletting.
"At his height, he needs to be consistently hitting those Joel Garner/Curtly Ambrose-type lengths," one commentator implored.
"Those guys used to make you play at just about every delivery. Holder allows you to leave too often."
Holder is a very good, honest player with a decent international record. But he is no Garner or Ambrose and never will be. Nor does he have a bloke at the other end tying a batsman to the railway tracks or 450 to defend thanks to the top six blazing away with the bat.
There is not one player in this current side, now ranked eighth on the ICC Test rankings, who would even carry the drinks in one of those old West Indian sides.
A handful have shown fight but the general body language, lack of energy and attention to detail is poor.
There is nothing wrong about reminiscing about the good old days, but the references to the Windies are through a lens of sadness rather than joy as we watch this current side aimlessly meander their way to another heavy defeat.
West Indies 'less than a Sheffield Shield side'
"We lived in the era when the West Indies were just gilt-edged superstars – Desmond Haynes, Greenidge, Garner, (Michael) Holding, (Colin) Croft, (Andy) Roberts," veteran cricket journalist Robert "Crash" Craddock told Sky Sports Radio on Sunday.
"To see how far they've fallen in basic things like running between wickets, catching, fielding (is disappointing) …they're so far off the pace.
"At one point they had one guy (Jermaine Blackwood) who didn’t even appeal for a run out.
"They are less than a Sheffield Shield side. They are so modest (on talent)."
The injury-hit Windies are fielding a grade cricketer in the Adelaide Test and several players are about at the same standard.
Young Sydney Thunder batsman Ollie Davies peeled off a superb century against the tourists in a warm-up match a few weeks ago and was immediately hit up by those he'd just conquered, eagerly enquiring about his West Indian heritage.
Davies is Aussie as Vegemite but the inference was he would could walk in and be an instant star in the Caribbean should he ever wish to seriously explore his eligibility status.
It might not be the last invite he receives.
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