For Love Or Money?

England have completed a 2-0 defeat of the West Indies after rain obliterated a third day of the last Test at Edgbaston, Birmingham without a ball being bowled. It was a convincing series victory for the English but for the West Indies, there is still much to take away which is positive. For Darren Sammy, the main learning point of the exercise should be about staying in the game for all its sessions and the ability to stop collapses. In both losses, it was one disastrous session which cost his team the game as five or more wickets went down.

Darren Sammy

Individuals will take there own lessons from England. Most hurt have been Keiran Powell, Kirk Edwards and Darren Bravo, three men targeted successfully by the English pace attack as they were the keys to a West Indian defiance.Chanderpaul did what he does best and Samuels was the revelation, finally batting the way he has promised he would from the start of his career.

Darren Sammy continues to build his team and is vital to their self-belief. Calls for his sacking by formers such as Michael Holding are perplexing. It seems that the easiest sport to play in the West Indies is the tearing down of players who turn up and give their all. On the side lines, certain glory hunters and guns for hire sit, waiting to ride back into town on their snow white chargers, as former players cheer and whoop concerned only about winning. I wonder if the old men of the time had been calling on Clive Lloyd's head in 1975 and the sacking of his babies after Australia thrashed them 5-1. The likes of Richards, Greenidge, Rowes, Kallicharan, Roberts and Holding might not have been seen again if Garry Sobers or Rohan Kanhai had torn them apart. Instead they talked of potential, guts and their love of the game. They called for patience and support.

That dourest of English captains, Nassar Hussain, the man whose mantra of safety first throttled his captaincy, has made the statement in the last few days that team spirit is something you see in winning teams. Your never see, he says, the English high fiving and back slapping late on an afternoon when opponents have them chase leather all day and yet, in between the showers, that's been a constant refrain of the West Indies under Darren Sammy this summer and back home when the Australians were besting them. Like Lloyd and Sir Frank Worrell, he has shaped these men from disparate nations into a team ... a band of brothers who hurt when they lose and back each other no matter what. If you watched Sammy and his men as Sunday morning unfolded and Tino Best scored a completely unheralded and exuberant near hundred, that was an inescapable conclusion.

Vivi, take note

The Ramdin-Richards series of incidents proves the same thing. Yes, Ramdin's note waving action was outside of the spirit of the game and he has received a just and reasonable rebuke from the ICC referee but behind it, was the refusal of a man proud of his place and his team to accept what he considered unjust criticism. Here Hussain also agrees. The one thing missing under Chris Gayle's captaincy was spirit and verve. Ramdin might have expressed it with a fist of ham but at least it was there for all to see and without fear of the scariest man in cricket. For ten years now, West Indies players have lived with two constants: the unjust and unrelenting attacks of former players from the glory days of the the eighties, dismissing them and calling them insignificant in the scheme of West Indies cricket. These are players who hated losing and had extraordinary skills. Each time they tear down, they build themselves and their exploits up. Funny that. The reaction of the team management, including coach Otis Gibson, manager Richie Richardson and captain Darren Sammy has been instructive. Whilst not condoning Ramdin's actions, they made no move to discipline him. Sammy described the ICC punishment of 20% of Ramdin's match fee as appropriate and enough, shrugging an admittance that he probably went too far. When asked about his penchant for having prepared notes in his pocket when he scores centuries - with his first Test century he bought out a thank you to Ian Bishop, David Williams and Ronnie Sarwan - Sammy smiled and said he hoped we saw more notes.
The Gomer Pyle "Surprise, surprise!" moment in sport during all of this were those Knights of the Self Abound Table, Sir Ian and Sir Viv, who stood together once again.  

Knights of the Self Abound Table

Botham, always happy to use and abuse the benefits his freakish skills gifted him, has come out with his usual bludgeoning defence of his former Somerset buddy Richards. The worst offence against these old boys promoted beyond even their own self-importance, is to attack them. They have hunted as a pack for years, destroying Peter Roebuck in a smear campaign that played its own more cleverly distanced and salacious part in his eventual death. They puff and bluster like the old men they have become, no longer able to demand respect for who they are, just who they were, because all they have are words and they are long on tearing down and well short in building up. 
If Richards wanted to inspire Ramdin as he suggested his criticism had, why wasn't he with him at training or a constant ear at the impressionable man's side. Likewise, why hasn't Botham been available to console and guide the likes of KP through his troubles - after all, Botham would be eminently qualified in that regard. If Michael Holding thinks Fidel Edwards and Kemar Roach have lost the plot, shouldn't he be standing a post at the bowlers end in the nets? All this whilst others like Graham Gooch, Richie Richardson, Andy Flower and in the past Andy Roberts, Joel Garner and Dennis Lillee quietly ply their trade working with, not against the current custodians of the game. Why did Vivi walk away from the players and the team in the late nineties? Why has Botham done little but offer public comments? Because commentary pays more, only requires 20 minutes of your every hour and is so easy. You never have to deal with defeat in air conditioned commentary box. 
Ramdin stands accountable for his act of passion, whilst Richards is paid for his name. I'll leave you to sort out which is love and which is prostitution.