By David Jackson
West Indies ended the year 2023 rather
well with a solid and satisfying 3-2 T201
series win over England. This followed an
ODI series win also against England, just prior to
the T201 series, and a T201 series win against India,
in August. In Tests the series win by West Indies
in Zimbabwe at Harare in Zimbabwe was good
enough to leave a smile on the faces of their fans.
The Test team did not perform that badly in South
Africa. They were somewhat competitive, even
though there were some batting collapses. As
far as the West Indies women were concerned,
the best moment of 2023 came when captain
Hayley Mathews produced a splendid recordbreaking132,
off just 64 balls against Australia
that helped West Indies Women to secure their
highest-ever chase in women’s T201s was a great
achievement for the team. Those were the good
performances of the West Indies team this year.
Besides Hayley Matthews, players like Shai Hope, Akeal
Hosein, Alzarri Joseph and Gudakesh Motie
also performed generally good this year. It was
also nice to see Romario Shepherd finally developing
into a very good all-rounder in the white ball formats.
Unfortunately, however, there were bad moments for
West Indies in 2023, and in certain occasions it was ugly.
It was immensely disappointing for West Indies as times
ODI champions to have to take part in a Qualifier
tournament in Zimbabwe, to be included as one of
the teams in the ODI World Cup, but it was even more
disappointing and humiliating not to be one of the two
teams which eventually qualified from this Qualifier
tournament to participate in the 2023 ICC ODI World
Cup.
West Indies’s preparation leading up the World
Cup Qualifier tournament was poor, the selection of the
squad highly questionable and the performances of the
West Indies in that tournament embarrassing. West Indies
fans had to watch the World Cup being played without
their team which had won the tournament in 1975 and
1979 and this was indeed very painful. It was an ugly
period for West Indies cricket. And there was much more
disappointments to follow.
The selectors continued to make bad decisions. For
instance, the decision to continue with Kyle Mayers as
opening partner to Brandon King in T20s was ridiculous. Mayers had shown on numerous occasions that he was
and continued to be a poor choice as an opener. He
is too reckless as a batsman and has major deficiencies
in his batting technique. It is time to end this experiment
with Kyle Mayers. Allick Athanaze is a much better choice
to open the batting with Brandon King. Bringing back
Johnson Charles was another error on the part of the
selectors. It is time we move on from these players.
The poor form of Guyanese Shimron Hetmyer was
undoubtedly one of the main disappointments for West
Indies for 2023. The selectors had maintained their faith
in him and included him in both the ODI and T201 series
against England, despite the fact that he was struggling
for form. His poor form however continued, and after
mediocre scores of 32, 0, 12, 1 and 2 he was dropped.
No one could really criticize that decision, though some
felt that having invested in him the selectors could have
given him the remaining matches in the T20 series.
Another disappointment of the year 2023 was the poor
performances of Obed McCoy. It was sad to see the
decline of McCoy, who previously was considered one
of the leading T20 bowlers for West Indies. His left-arm
pace at first seemed tailor-made for the T20 format. Over
the years he has shown several variations in his bowling
making him a difficult bowler, especially in the death
overs. His execution of the Yorker and the skillful use of the
slower deliveries had made him one of the more promising
bowlers. One of Obed’s main issues that he is injuryprone,
and now he seems to have lost much confidence
in himself. His decline has severely weakened the West
Indies in the bowling department. It is one area
where they need to improve considerably if they
are to remain competitive.
Evin Lewis’s poor run of form which certainly led to his omission from
both the ODI and T20 teams was yet another
disappointment.
Let us hope that West Indies can work out the
many issues which negatively affect the team.
The selectors need to be more consistent in their
selections of the various teams. There also seem to
be some management issues that are resulting
in player disputes that seems to be disrupting the
team harmony creating much uncertainty and
mistrust among players. We also need for greater
commitment, grit, and determination from our
players. There is a lack of depth and consistency
in the batting, with the West Indies struggling to
a reliable batting line-up in the various formats.
This puts great pressure on individual players to
carry the fortunes; Shai Hope for West Indies in
the shorter formats and Hayley Matthews for the
women. Our bowlers are also inconsistent, often
lacking that ‘killer-instinct’ to finish off teams or
maintaining good line and length.
More effort must be made to address these areas of
concern if West Indies cricket is to achieve the
successes that are needed to build confidence
and improve cricket in the region. Let us hope
that 2024 is a good year for West Indies. We are
weary of the ‘bad’ and the ‘ugly’.