Cricket: England vs West Indies

Posted by David Whitley May 20, 2007

By the time this blog entry is online, we’ll probably have a fair idea of the outcome of the first cricket Test match of the English summer. England are taking on the West Indies at Lords, before three further Tests at Old Trafford in Manchester, Headingley in Leeds and the Riverside, Chester-le-Street, Durham. Hopefully it will be a cracking contest between two strong sides, but I fear otherwise.

England had a dreadful winter tour of Australia, and ignominious World Cup, but West Indies cricket is in a rather bad state at the moment. Brian Lara may not have been much of a captain, but he was arguably the best batsman since Don Bradman, and losing the record-breaking Test run-scorer leaves a massive hole in the batting order.

Whilst the West Indies have a few good players, such as Chris Gayle and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, they don’t have a single player capable of striking fear into the opposition. Oh for the days of Viv Richards, Malcolm Marshall, Desmond Haynes, Courtney Walsh and Curtley Ambrose…

The West Indian side has also had ludicrously little preparation for this Test series. Aside from a severely rain-affected game against county side Somerset, the Ramnaresh Sarwan-led side has had no time at all to adjust to English pitches and conditions. While they may be talking things up, it’s difficult to see any other result than a total thrashing in this series.

England may not be as good as they’d like to have thought after their 2005 Ashes triumph against Australia, but they’re still a strong side, and are likely to prove too good for the West Indians. What should be an absorbing contest could prove to be a bit of a non-event.