Lara blamed for poor Windies batting
By Trevor Chesterfield
5 January 1999
CAPE TOWN - Malcolm Marshall, a man with pride and a world class
player in his day, was last night lamenting the demise of yet another
West Indies batting failure on a pitch which any side with a few grams
of guts would manage a sizeable score.
Unfortunately Marshall, now the West Indies coach, is unable to
apportion blame to where it really lies for the list of failures of
this first test tour of South Africa. Yet there is a sneaking hint
that Brian Lara, the touring team's captain, should shoulder much of
the blame for what has taken place in what has been almost two months
of torture for former greats such as Marshall and Sir Garfield Sobers.
There has been no skill, no guts and little of the batting flair which
dubbed the Windies a blend of spice and sugar and plenty of
flambouyant strokeplay.
Mumbling that Lara has been the culprit for the team's demise as well
as the open rift in the ranks are starting to swell in the far off
Caribbean and could end up with his being sacked as one of the worst
West Indies captains in memory.
Although Marshall declined to be as blunt as blaming Lara for the
appalling batting displays, the West Indies batting slipped to new
depths at Newlands when in their quest of a victory target of 421 they
were a sickly 97 for six at the close and an early finish loomed
today.
it is part of the coach's job to see that the side does not
continually step on a banana skin; when it does, however, not prevent
them from collectively slipping on it. They did it at St George's Park
almost a month ago and Lara promised ``blood, guts toil, sweat and
tears''. Since then the side has produced further evidence of batting
embarrassment with Lara unable to find any real answers apart from two
hours of batting magic at Kingsmead over Christmas.
Meanwhile it has taken Shaun Pollock an extra test to go past his
father's haul of 116 wickets but the two dismissals to his credit in
the West Indies second innings was enough to push him up the wicket
table to fourth place and seven wickets behind third-placed Trevor
Goddard.
Pollock (jnr) equalled his father's record of 116 wickets when he had
Philo Wallace caught by Herschelle Gibbs, which was reason for the
extra celebration.
There is still cause for concern, however, in the South African camp
over Allan Donald and chances of his playing in the fifth test at
SuperSport Centurion look in doubt. The idea for Donald to be on the
field was no doubt to put some thought in the West Indies mind that he
still might bowl.
But worries are mounting in the West Indies camp whether their two
fast bowling war horses, Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh will be
ready in time, or will step down an allow the new breed of fast
bowlers to take over, especially as the visitors have a series of
seven LOIs to play in South Africa.
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