Date-stamped : 06 Mar97 - 10:15 6 March 1997 Lloyd On West Indian Batsmen In recent years, West Indies batsmen appear to be using their pads more than their bats - to such an extent that the fans are starting to complain, many of them staying away and talking about the good old days when the pad was the second line of defence, not the first. One man who is not happy with it is Clive Lloyd - and he should be. A big left-handed batsman, Lloyd was one of the most feared batsmen of his day. Although he played against some of the finest bowlers ever, he seldom used his pad. He hit the ball hard and often, and he scored 7,515 runs in Test cricket, includ- ing 19 centuries and a top score of 242 not out. According to the former West Indies captain and current manager however, the blame does not all lie with those batsmen who so often rely on their pads rather than their bats. "It is possible that the batsmen are playing so carefully be- cause of the pitches we are preparing in the West Indies," said Lloyd yesterday. "Up to a few years ago, the pitches were good. In Jamaica, for example, Sabina Park was hard and fast; in Barbados, Kensington Oval was bouncy; and in Guyana, Bourda was reliable. Today however, they are all slow and low. That is part of the problem. The batsmen do not trust the bounce of the ball and are afraid to play strokes." Another reason put forward by Lloyd is the changing face of the game as far as itineraries are concerned. "In Australia, the Test matches were so close, there were hard- ly any first-class matches in between, and the players were not able to build their confi- dence. The pressure was also on them. The team, certainly at the start, was not doing well, the bats- men were not doing well, and some of them probably believed that they were playing for their places - and that on pitches which were not conducive to strokeplay." Lloyd, the captain who beat the world over and over again with a battery of fast bowlers, believes that good pitches will go a far way in solving some of the problems of West Indies cricket. "The pitches in the West Indies need a bit more life in them - a bit more bounce. Such pitches would not only allow our batsmen to play strokes, but it would also help our fast bowlers. The bowlers are getting no help from these pitches, and that is probably why so many of them are now having injury problems. They have to do so much to get something out of them." It must also be remembered, said Lloyd, that this is the age of television and video. "Our young batsmen come through early and they have faults. Years ago however, by the time the opposition worked a batsmen out, it was the third or fourth Test match. Today, because of video, they study you and they are waiting for you from the first Test." According to Lloyd, coaching from an early age is now impor- tant. "We need to correct the faults early, so that the batsmen do not carry them through Youth tournament, through the Red Stripe Cup and into Test cricket. By the time the batsmen get to the Red Stripe Cup they should be well rounded players." Despite the concern over pitch and technique, Lloyd is confi- dent that with a little help from the groundsmen, West Indies cricket will flourish as it did in the glory days of the late 1970s and the 1980s. "We are not short of talent," said the man rated as one of the greatest captains of all time. "We have some good, young fast bowlers and most importantly, we have some good, young spinners. We have a variety - offspin, left-arm spin, right-arm legspin and some unorthodox ones. That is a good thing." According to Lloyd, the new-look Red Stripe Cup with its longer season is good for West Indies cricket - it is long enough for the batsmen to play often against a variety of spin, and for the spin bowlers to fine tune their art in match condi- tions Source :: Jamaica-Gleaner (http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com) Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com)