Hard truth

West Indies’ Dwayne Bravo, here celebrating the dismissal of England’s Ian Bell, has been fined 20 per cent of his match fee for commenting on Chris Gayle’s controversial LBW verdict in the second ODI. (AP Picture)

Sat, June 23, 2012 - 12:05 AM

LEEDS – Performance counts – not names on paper!

West Indies captain Darren Sammy made that clear yesterday after the regional team’s quest to salvage pride from a wretched One-Day International (ODI) series ended in disappointment yesterday.

Persistent rain washed out the third and final ODI, without a ball bowled as match officials abandoned the match due to a saturated Headingley outfield.

England won the series 2-0, taking the first ODI at the Rose Bowl by 114 runs last Saturday and the second game at the Oval by eight wickets on Tuesday.

“All of us were happy with the prospects for the ODI series. But this is a perfect case of ‘cricket don’t play on paper’,” captain Darren Sammy said afterwards.

“You could have the best-looking team, but at the end of the day you have to go out on the pitch and perform.

“We have not done this in the ODI series, and England went about doing the job very professionally,” he added.

The washout summed up the West Indies’ fortunes in a series where they were tagged – perhaps in jest – as favourites, with the inclusion of Indian Premier League contractees Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard, Sunil Narine, Dwayne Bravo, Dwayne Smith and Andre Russell but failed to live up to expectations.

With West Indies also losing the preceding three-Test series 2-0, Sammy said his side would now focus on finding redemption through Sunday’s Twenty20 International.

He said a win at Trent Bridge would set the tone for the New Zealand series, which begins at monthend with two T20s in Florida, followed by two Tests and five ODIs in the Caribbean.

“Winning the T20 would be a good way to end on a high note, so we can take that momentum into the series we have against New Zealand,” Sammy said.

“Winning would be a good way to finish.”

Rain has wreaked havoc on the Windies tour of England, ruining the opening tour match at Hove last month and returning to wreck the two-day tour match at Grace Road. The weather also reduced the third Test at Edgbaston to just two days’ play.

Meanwhile, vice-captain Bravo has been fined 20 per cent of his match fee after being found guilty of breaching the ICC Code of Conduct after Tuesday’s second ODI.

Bravo was charged with a Level 1 offence, pretaining to clause 2.1.7 of the ICC Code of Conduct for players or team officials which covers inappropriate public comment.

There was no formal hearing as Bravo pleaded guilty to the offence and accepted the proposed sanction.

In explaining his decision, match referee Jeff Crowe said: “Dwayne unfortunately went over the mark in describing the Chris Gayle decision and used comments that criticized both the on-field and TV umpire.”

The charge was laid by Tony Hill and Kumar Dharmasena after Bravo publicly criticized the umpires following an LBW decision against his teammate Gayle.

All Level I breaches carry a minimum penalty of a warning/reprimand and a maximum penalty of 50 per cent of the match fee. (CMC/EZS)