WHEN THE FRANK WORRELL TROPHY was last contested, in the Caribbean in 2012, Michael Clarke, with praise rare from an Australian captain, credited West Indies with waging a “really hard-fought” series, adding that he hoped they “get a lot of credit for the way they played”.
Australia prevailed in two of the three Tests; the weather precluded a result in the other. That West Indies carried each match into the fifth day was something of an accomplishment for a team that had spectacularly plummeted down the rankings after Mark Taylor’s Australians ended their 15 years of domination of Test cricket with a 2-1 triumph before their stunned devotees in 1995.
A share of the One-Day Internationals (ODI) and the two T20s lent credibility to Clarke’s comment and to coach Mickey Arthur’s “they went toe-to-toe with us”.
The outcome hinted at an overdue revival for West Indies as much as it did a waning of Australia’s strength.
West Indian optimism proved fleeting; after a few difficult years, Australia rebounded to rise to No. 2 on the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Test rankings and to reclaim the World Cup they had surrendered in 2011.
Three months after Clarke’s team departed the Caribbean, New Zealand arrived to be beaten in both Tests, four of the five ODIs and both T20s. The results soon reverted to type for West Indies, keeping them clinging on to the lower rungs of the ICC’s ladder.
Over the past year and a half, they have suffered reversals against the Black Caps, both in New Zealand and the Caribbean, as well as heavy defeats in India and South Africa. Their only successes were over Bangladesh (twice) and Zimbabwe.
A youth-based 1-1 outcome of the recent home series against England, then No. 3 on the ICC’s register, has, for the umpteenth time, raised expectations for a better future.
Australia, a revitalised team under a new coach, the fair dinkum Aussie Darren Lehmann, return for two Tests, compressed into a period of 12 days; the first starting June 3 at Windsor Park in Dominica, the second eight days later at Sabina Park in Jamaica.
Given the statistical disparity between the teams, the Tests are considered relaxing preparation for the Australians, still skippered by Clarke, prior to the real business of defending the Ashes in England that immediately follow.
It is an opportunity, so the reasoning goes, for their key players to become reacquainted with the long format after four months confined to the artificial limitations of the World Cup and the Indian Premier League (IPL).
In such a scenario, West Indies’ only option would be damage limitation.
It is not quite as straightforward as that.
Clarke has cautioned his players against underestimating their opponents who he expects “to prove a handful” in their own conditions.
As captain, he is fully aware of Australia’s problems away from the comforts of home in recent times.
In 2013, they were thrashed in all four Tests in India, 3-0 in the Ashes in England and held 1-1 by Pakistan in the UAE; last year, they lost 2-1 in South Africa and 2-0 (by 221 runs and 356 runs) to Pakistan in the UAE.
Whether their hat-trick of successes over the past year and a half (a 5-0 Ashes whitewash over England at home, 2-1 over South Africa in the Clash of the Titans in South Africa a month later and 2-0 over India in four Tests in Australia last December and January, along with the subsequent reclaiming of the World Cup) erases the reservations about their competence away from their vast island continent, the coming months will tell.
Strong performances in the forthcoming Tests in the Caribbean and the Ashes in England would add authenticity to their claims to be international cricket’s most powerful contemporary team.
West Indies’ ambitions extend no further than continuing the progress sustained in the England series.
Like the young Australians with Lehmann, the rising generation now comprising more than half the squad – the batsmen Darren Bravo, Kraigg Brathwaite, Jermaine Blackwood, the all-rounder Jason Holder, the fast bowler Shannon Gabriel – appeared to positively respond to Phil Simmons in his first series as head coach.
The mood of a cricket team at every level is revealed in the standard of its fielding. There were 19 catches in the three Tests against England, 11 between first slip and gully, in addition to captain/wicket-keeper Denesh Ramdin’s six catches and two stumpings and five slick run-outs.
Bravo, an unreliable fielder in the deep during the 2012 series, has morphed into an infallible slip catcher; he snared five at first slip.
Only two were missed, both late on the final day of the Grenada Test when England’s victory was assured. A year ago, six were spilled in the space of two sessions on the fourth afternoon of the first Test against Bangladesh, another eight in the three Tests against New Zealand.
Simmons was suitably encouraged yet, after eight years in the same position with Ireland, the strongest of the ICC associates, he is aware of the perils of expecting too much, too soon.
The Australians present as daunting a test of his team’s resilience as could be expected this early in his tenure.
Tony Cozier is the most experienced cricket writer and broadcaster in the Caribbean.
