Test whitewash looms after Newlands debacle
By Trevor Chesterfield
7 January 1999
CAPE TOWN - West Indies manager Clive Lloyd, one of the Caribbean
greats, said it all as he sat before the media briefing at Newlands
yesterday with the frustrated comment ``oh boy'' while Brian Lara sat
grim-faced and desperate.
Apart from being a beaten captain for the fourth time in this series,
he is the leader of the first West Indies side in history with the
spectre of the first Test white wash looming at SuperSport Centurion.
Lloyd was captain of the side which lost 5-1 to Australia in 1975/76,
but ``at least we won a game'' he smiled. Now he is overseeing the
demise of a team which is in need of serious rebuilding but instead is
crumbling around him as the embarrassing 5-0 defeat hangs like a
taunting millstone.
The man known as big cat sat next to Lara, seen as the spoilt kitten
since taking over as leader of a divided band of far from merry men
with the knowledge that the fifth match at Centurion, now only eight
days away, spells a watershed for a side which is, frankly not up to
international standard. A 4-0 result was not what was expected of this
series and Lara finally admitted it.
Even Zimbabwe would take on the once mighty Windies and give them a
good run for the gold doubloons wrung from the West Indies Cricket
Board before the start of the tour.
Although the West Indies tail rattled along the runs and gave South
Africa the expected tough time at breezy, chilly Newlands yesterday,
all it amounted to was reducing the margin of defeat to an
embarrassing 149 runs.
Lara talked about the ``younger players looking at themselves'' and
``playing for our pride as a team'' but the words were similar to those
after the defeats at St George's Park and Kingsmead. They were also
about as empty as the results and rewards managed so far on this
tour. If a 31-year-old, by name of Ridley Jacobs, can put together a
sparkling, yet determined innings - their top-score in this match then it does show that there is some spirit and fight in the side.
It also shows that it is more than a question of technique and batting
skills which are at fault Now they face the humiliation every side in
this competitive sports world: total annihilation in a country where
for years they have been revered. ``We want to leave with something
for the people here to remember us, but it's not going to happen the
way we are playing,'' was coach Malcolm Marshall's blunt assessment on
Tuesday night.
So, while the Windies move to Paarl and a three-day match to sort out
their batting problems, Allan Donald is to take a rest from duty this
weekend along with Jacques Kallis, Hansie Crone and Shaun Pollock.
Pollock has taken 25 wickets this series and has been the backbone of
the pace attack while Kallis has joined him in being possibly the
second link to the finest all-round duo at international level today.
Donald will have a fitness test before the fifth match of the series
at SuperSport Centurion starts tomorrow week.
Although he was on the field throughout the West Indies second innings
of 271, Donald did not bowl, which, to some extent, felt Cronje, while
wrapping up the West Indies innings yesterday was not as easy as it
might have been.
South Africa's initial squad of 30 for the World Cup is to selected on
Monday. It is to be trimmed to 20 by the end of February, during the
tour of New Zealand and is to be announced around Easter.
The squad of 15 for the tour of New Zealand is to be announced in
Durban on January 27.
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