THE AUSTRALIA-WEST Indies three-Test series has ended and, as expected, the home country completed a 3-0 whitewash.
Coach Bennett King, captain Shivnarine Chanderpaul and the rest of the West Indies squad must now take stock as they prepare for a tour of New Zealand next February.
MANY NEGATIVES
There were many negatives on the tour, especially in the first two matches. The West Indies failed to get past 210 in the first innings of the first Test and were dismissed for a lowly 129 in the second innings. They were again all out for well below 200 (149) in the first innings of the second Test but showed marked improvement when getting up to 334 in the seocnd innings. The over 300 score was due mainly to an attractive 113 by Dwayne Bravo and a solid 71 by wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin.
On the other hand, Australia batted solidly throughout the series scoring six hundreds to just two by the West Indies. On the bowling side, the top West Indies bowlers collected just eight wickets while Australia's top three, Brett Lee, Shane Warne and Glen McGrath, took 18, 16 and 13 wickets respectively.
The tour selectors and management made a number of blunders. The first was the decision to put the Australians in after winning the toss for the first Test. Then the biggest of all was to leave Bravo out of the eleven for the first Test and to play four fast bowlers.
GENUINE ALL-ROUNDER
Bravo had shown in recent tours that he was the closest thing to a genuine all-rounder in the West Indies squad. He therefore should have been given a chance to develop. The decision to play four fast bowlers left the West Indies with a very long tail and it showed even more after the top order failed to click.
Vice-captain Ramnaresh Sarwan, Chris Gayle before his heart problems, opener Devon Smith, Marlon Samuels and captain Chanderpaul were all disappointing with the bat. Smith played well in the first Test but like all the other batsmen, he was very inconsistent.
There were also several positives on the tour for the West Indies.
HISTORIC ACHIEVEMENT
The historic achievement of Brian Lara in overtaking Australia's Allan Border as Test cricket's most prolific batsman ensures that West Indian batsmanship remains in the spotlight.
Lara will retain the record for some time but younger men such as India's Sachin Tendulkar and Australia's Ricky Ponting are not too far behind to challenge it in the near future. It all depends on Lara and how much longer he remains in the Test arena. He is almost sure to stay on until after the 2007 World Cup and by that time he will have taken the Test run scoring record to well past 12,000.
IMPRESSIVE RAMDIN
Ramdin and Bravo were also outstanding for the tourists.
In addition to scoring his second Test century, Bravo took his first six-wicket haul at the highest level. This came against the best aggregation in the world and he must surely have cemented his place in the West Indies team for a long time.
Ramdin has impressed many since he led the West Indies under-19s and he has shown vast improvement in recent months. He exhibits a great deal of maturity and appears, even at age 20, to be a future West Indies captain.
Both young players got rave reviews in Australia and their progress will be closely watched. Consistency is key and it is hoped that their performances will continue to improve and serve as inspiration to the rest of the young players both in the team and in the wider region.
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