ST JOHN’S, Antigua (CMC) – Former legendary captain and batting maestro, Sir Vivian Richards, has labeled the West Indies field as “amateur” and said the Caribbean side could not afford to be so poor on the pitch especially as batting was bad. again to the beginning.
Speaking against the backdrop of the recent 2-0 whitewash on the Test tour of New Zealand, Sir Viv said the slips in the field were clear indications that the concentration of West Indies players was also scarce.
“When you find out you’re playing at that particular level, the catches we drop are amateur because you can’t have a team that can’t bat a ball on a regular basis and still drop all those catches,” he said Sir Viv, the only West Indies captain who never lost a Test series.
“If one thing you do is make sure you stay focused as hard as you can so you can see around the table that we’re not as focused as we should be,” he added in a radio interview here.
The West Indies suffered a persecution tour of New Zealand, losing the Twenty20 International three-game series, 2-0, before falling down the same margin in the Test series as well.
The longest format was where the West Indies had a particularly difficult life, losing the first Test in Hamilton earlier this month by a inning and 134 runs before losing the second Test in Wellington due to a batting and 12 runs .
Henry Nicholls struck a brilliant 174 in the second Test but was dropped five times en route to his career best score.
New Zealand stacked 519 for seven in Hamilton and 460 all out in the Basin Reserve as the West Indies four-piece speed attack struggled despite the encouragement of grassy fields in both games.
Speedster Shannon Gabriel topped the wicket count with six wickets while Alzarri Joseph, the youngest member of the regular attack, claimed four.
Sir Viv was critical of Joseph’s use of the attack, arguing that it needed to be introduced earlier.
“I think sometimes he should even get the ball before Jason (Holder) because you can’t be getting a young guy like that at that particular stage and not use it,” noted Sir Viv, the best batsman of his time .
“So I don’t think it’s being treated very well at the moment.”
Joseph, 24, was one of the heroes of the West Indies under-19s who won the 2016 ICC World Cup in Bangladesh.
He made his international debut later that year and has so far taken 32 wickets from 13 Tests and 48 from 28 One-Day Internationals.