Crying need for a strategist

By EZRA STUART | Wed, January 25, 2012 - 12:00 AM

THE BARBADOS CRICKET TEAM has a batting coach, a bowling coach, a physiotherapist, a video analyst, a scorer, a trainer and a manager who is also director of cricket.

There is also a captain and selectors but somehow I believe the team desperately needs a strategist or tactician to enhance the think tank when it comes to crunch time.

As with most national football teams, apart from last year’s winless Bajan Tridents World Cup squad, there is a dire need for a technical advisor or director.

I’m a firm believer that brains and brawn should blend, but Barbados, after a brilliant four-match unbeaten run, lost the plot against Trinidad and Tobago in their Caribbean T20 semi-final last Saturday night at Kensington Oval.

I was befuddled by the team selection the previous night when neither the experienced Dale Richards nor Javon Searles was given an opportunity to play in a dead rubber game against the Combined Campuses and Colleges with Barbados’ semi-final berth already secured.

A golden opportunity had presented itself to see the pair in action and gauge their form. This would’ve given the team other options just in case the need arose for the crucial semi-final as it did with Carlos Brathwaite’s injury.

Richards is no rookie and it was a national insult of the highest order to relegate the former West Indies Test and One-Day opener to carrying the towels and being waterboy for six straight games.

Not even in Sunday’s third-place game against the Windwards was Richards, who has given yeoman’s service over the past decade and who has had an unblemished disciplinary record, as far I am aware, given a look-in as a farewell gesture – as he is unlikely to represent Barbados again.

Apart from Dwayne Smith, he is one of the most free-scoring batsman in the country and the only Bajan ever to make a double century in the Sagicor Super50.

Richards should’ve been the man to open the batting with Smith to capitalize on the fielding restrictions in the six-over power play in the absence of the big-hitting Martin Nurse, puzzlingly omitted for this format.

But did Richards’ omission have something to do with unconfirmed reports that he was asked to bat in the middle order?

Since Searles was the team’s leading wicket-taker and most economical bowler in last year’s competition, neither he nor Richards could be considered liabilities.

Having said that, it was even more surprising when Searles was selected to replace Brathwaite in the semi-final.

Only the night before, with Brathwaite unable to bowl, Tino Best, Fidel Edwards, Ryan Hinds, Sulieman Benn and Ashley Nurse had routed CCC for a paltry 76. If there was a need for a sixth bowler in case one of the five main bowlers was expensive, either Smith, who has over 100 first-class wickets, or Kevin Stoute could have filled in and sent down a few overs.

Since the team already had the necessary bowling cover, it was clear to all – except those picking the final XI – that the batting needed to be boosted against the reigning champs.

With the batting’s fragility, choosing an extra batsman, either Richards or Jonathan Carter, should’ve been a foregone conclusion, especially against the strong Trinidad bowling attack.

If those selection blunders were big shocks, the biggest was yet to come. Barbados, with its suspect batting, won the toss and batted after playing the extra bowler.

This after the previous night’s rout of CCC, with Edwards and Best on fire and looking very menacing. If only from a psychological viewpoint, it would’ve been prudent to insert the Trinidadians, who are not known to like genuinely quick bowling.

The team’s tactics defied logic and cricketing intelligence.

As promising as 20-year-old wicket-keeper Shane Dowrich may be, it was also a mistake to keep sending him in the pressure situations at No. 4, while the experienced Ryan Hinds was being treated like a tailender, coming in as low as No. 8 and No. 9, notwithstanding his two sixes in the last over against Jamaica.

Against Trinidad, after the early loss of captain Edwards and Smith, with the miserly Badree flicking his leg breaks and Sunil Narine hurling his darts-like deliveries, Hinds should’ve been promoted– but baby of the team Dowrich was asked to do a man’s job.

Also, the decision to open with captain Kirk Edwards, followed by Stoute at No. 3, should be reviewed. Once Edwards is in the team, and he should be, it may be more prudent to have another ultra-attacking batsman partnering Smith, who was run out on a couple of occasions as it appeared that too much emphasis was placed on giving him the strike at all costs.

In this format, no team can depend exclusively on one batsman to play the big shots. Trinidad’s success is partly own to their openers Adrian Barath and Lendl Simmons, along with the Bravo brothers, attacking the bowling early on, leaving Kieron Pollard to do the finishing job.

Even though Barbados exited at the semi-final stage, it was clear that the fans would support a winning national team.

It is also time that Barbados’ cricket and its players, with such rich history and legacy, be professionally marketed.

With hundreds of patriotic Bajan supporters in this cricket-crazy country, a golden opportunity was missed to make replica Barbados T20 jerseys of all the players available for sale in the souvenir shop at The Oval once permission was granted by the parties responsible for image rights.

Just imagine how many Dwayne Smith jerseys with his nickname “The Agent” affixed could have been sold, as well as the financial benefits he and his teammates would have received from a percentage of the sales.

The ball is in the BCA’s hand – unless they prefer the Trinidadians, who are head and shoulders above their Caribbean counterparts in the T20 format, to come to the crease first, with WIPA president Dinanath Ramnarine as the umpire, of course.