Dear Editor: WI’s struggles against spin are well known; so why isn’t CWI helping?!

“[…] For the last 30 years, we in the Caribbean have been producing pitches that are more suitable to spin bowling for our batsmen to practise on as well as a plethora of slow bowlers for our batsmen to practise against.

“Yet, every year, in every series, they just appear to be getting worse against spin…”

The following Letter to the Editor discussing West Indian batsmen’s continuing struggles against spin was submitted to Wired868 by Choy Aping from Trinidad:

After four completed matches (3 T20Is and 1 ODI) with two ODIs still to play, an unbelievable 22 of the 27 West Indies wickets to fall so far in the white ball series against Sri Lanka have fallen to spin.

Why?

West Indies batsmen were not facing Shane Warne from one end and Muttiah Muralitharan from the other as one might be tempted to believe after looking at those stats. Nor were they batting on a traditional Calcutta dustbowl.

None of the pitches was a rank turner. And to tell the truth, the current Sri Lankan spinners are good bowlers but not one is unplayable—a Warne or a Murali.

The problem is not the quality of the bowling but the lack of quality of the batting. Our batsmen simply lack the basic technical ability to play spin bowling, which are their inability to use their wrist, their feet, to sweep the ball and use their crease to their advantage.

The irony is, for the past 30 years, we have been producing in the Caribbean pitches that are more suitable to spin bowling and a plethora of spin/slow bowlers for our batsmen to practise on and against.

Yet every year, every series, they just appear to be getting worse against spin. Why?

I may be wrong on this but I strongly believe, if you look at international cricket, in limited overs over the past 15 years, you would find WI has faced the highest ratio of dot balls over the period—which more than likely would be directly tied to our batsmen inability to use their wrist to manoeuvre the fielders.

I have been on many social media platforms criticizing CWI infrastructure and development programs. Many believe I am calling for million dollar facilities, with three-storey gyms and hot and cold pools.

Yes, if we can get those amenities it would be great but most of the times I am talking about the basic stuff like more grassroot programmes, teaching the youths the correct thing from much earlier, addressing our pitches to play to our advantage, etc….

It is widely known amongst the Caribbean fanbase, for some time now, that Caribbean batsmen lack the ability to play spin. It is the reason our spin bowlers like Nakita Miller and Verasammy Permaul have dominated regional cricket over the past 15 years yet failed to make any significant impact on the international stage.

We have a fair idea of what the problem is, yet why haven’t CWI put anything in place to combat it?

What initiative has CWI put in place to address our batsmen’s inability to play spin at any level of our regional cricket??

Everyone in CWI has gotten so accustomed to mediocrity that today they are doing the minimum and being praised for it. We need to demand more from those directors at CWI!

The problem is, they account to no one. Unless and until that changes, we can expect opposition spin bowlers to keep spinning a web over our batsmen.

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