Former West Indies wicketkeeper-batsman Jeffrey Dujon has lashed out at the inexperienced squad that has been sent on the tour of Australia for a series of two-Tests against the current world champions.
Test captain Kraigg Brathwaite is one of only five members of the 15-member squad returning to Australia for the second men’s Test tour in a little under a year.
The others are long-standing pacer Kemar Roach, fellow fast bowler and vice-captain Alzarri Joseph, wicketkeeper-batsman Joshua Da Silva and opener Tagenarine Chanderpaul, who impressed in his maiden series last year.
Two notable absentees are compatriot all-rounders Jason Holder and Kyle Mayers, both of whom have preferred to play in franchise Twenty20 leagues during the period of the two Tests while emerging fast bowler Jayden Seales is sidelined because of a shoulder injury.
Seven of the travelling 15 are uncapped at Test level – opener Zachary McCaskie, wicketkeeper-batsman Tevin Imlach, all-rounders Justin Greaves, Kavem Hodge, and Kevin Sinclair, plus pacers Akeem Jordan and Shamar Joseph.
“It’s a bit of an embarrassment because Australia doesn’t suffer from the same situation as us,” Dujon said in an interview with the Jamaica Gleaner newspaper.
“Maybe their players are more patriotic, but this is like sending lambs to the slaughter. It would have been better if we had sent a young team like this to play a weaker nation, but I don’t think there’s a whole lot to be gained sending a team with seven debutants against a team so experienced, established and powerful.”
Head coach Andre Coley said the inclusion of untried talent coupled with the challenge posed by the world’s top-ranked Test outfit on their home turf can bring the best out of his unheralded squad.
But Dujon did not share the sentiments of Coley and he agreed with former Australia captain Steve Waugh, who met the announcement of the inexperienced West Indies squad with derision.
Waugh urged the sport’s world body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), to intervene because the threat of the sport’s longest format going extinct has never been more real T20 leagues pop up around the world along with the pending threat of the lucrative Indian Premier League going global and contracting players year-round.
Dujon supported Waugh’s view that T20 riches will continue to erode the long form of the sport unless something was done.
“Cricket can’t improve unless you have your best players playing,” Dujon said. “However, it’s not a situation that’s easily solved, and Steve Waugh is right, this is signalling the doom of Test cricket because the boards don’t have enough control over the players, and they (players) can dictate when and where they want to play.”
The last Test win for West Indies in Australia came 27 years ago at the WACA in Perth during their last series victory Down Under when they won 2-1.
West Indies’ first Test against Australia starts on January 17 in Adelaide, followed by the second Test at The Gabba beginning on January 25.
The last time West Indies won a Test series in Australia was in 1992/93 when they won 2-1.
(CMC)