The Golden Isles - A Story

[Imager36]

To say that my first kind-of-attempt-of-a-story was half-arsed would be being rather kind. Now, I'm going to do a bigger, better, and slightly more challenging one. The West Indies. After years of disappointment, I very much doubt that I'll be able to turn them round. But I'll be trying.

The squad for the tests in England will be:-

Openers
C.Gayle
D.Smith
L.Simmons

Batsmen
S.Chanderpaul
R.Sarwan
B.Nash
D.Richards

Wicket-Keeper/s
D.Ramdin

All-Rounders
N.Deonarine
D.Bravo
K.Pollard
D.Bernard

Bowlers
D.Sammy
J.Taylor
F.Edwards
N.Pascal
A.Richardson
A.Jaggernauth

The controversial players put in the squad were Richards, Pollard, Pascal and Richardson, as they have never played a test before, and they were selected mainly on domestic statistics.

Jaggernauth, Bernard and Simmons have only had one test each, and they each performed badly in this. Their domestic form grants them second chances.

The team for the Leicestershire match is an experimental XI, and this is how they line up:-

L.Simmons
D.Smith
D.Ramdin
B.Nash
D.Richards
K.Pollard
N.Deonarine
D.Bernard
A.Jaggernauth
A.Richardson
N.Pascal

[Imager36]

Leicestershire won the toss and chose to bat, and the bowling was dire. The first partnership between Boyce and New was 169, and the new ball bowlers were awfully inconsistent in it. We never took control back from that, although Jaggernauth's 6-57 was very good, and seals his first test place.

In our first innings, however, the great opening partnership didn't happen. Smith was out for 1 when two were on the board, and there were no scores above Nash's 64 in the innings, with Bernard (52) and Richards (45), also contributing to our 310.

Leicestershire's second innings was woeful again for our bowlers, with only Pascal (1-13) taking a wicket.

We just batted out the day with an hour of play left at the declaration.

[Straight Drive]

Damn you!

I was going to start a Windies story!

Try Barath. He's much better than most of your batsman.

[Imager36]

Damn you!

I was going to start a Windies story!

Try Barath. He's much better than most of your batsman.

Thanks for that, I thought I'd seen the computer give him a shot before, and was going to try him at some stage.

The MCC, luckily, weren't quite as sly as the foxes of Leicestershire.



Jaggernauth enjoyed ripping apart the less-than-international-batsmen, and Nash (198), Richards (136) and Smith (79) were grateful for the less-than-average bowling.

I don't imagine that England will rollover like this, but with some better bowlers in we may have a chance.

C.Gayle
D.Ramdin
R.Sarwan
S.Chanderpaul
B.Nash
D.Richards
D.Bravo
D.Sammy
J.Taylor
A.Jaggernauth
A.Richardson

[Straight Drive]

Opening with Ramdin? Risky.

It'll be intresting to see how it goes.

Looking nice so far.

[Imager36]

Ramdin only managed to get 2, so that experiment didn't work, but overall, I think my half-new-look-team did okay.



Our first innings did well, with Sarwan (121), Chanderpaul (96) and Nash Richards and Bravo, with 47, 46 and 45 respectively. Unfortunately, Richards was hit with a nasty one and is out for 12 days, missing at least the second test.

Richardson was our best bowler, taking 8-99 in the match. Bravo also took 5-97.

One change to the line-up, with the injured Richards in and Kieron Pollard in as a specialist batsman at 6.

[Chasjs]

Good performance. Your sticking with the Ramdin experiment then? I would, might just need some time.

[Imager36]

Definetly, I like keepers opening at 3, and as proved in real life, the Windies have Gayle and no other decent openers

Anyway, onto the second test, and a possible series win...



Success! I really thought I would be struggling, especially during test matches against a team as good as England. The bowling was very poor in the second innings, but that can be addressed after the one dayers against England and the Twenty:20 World Cup.

Richardson took 6-91 in the first, but 0-78 in the second, still leaving him, for me at least, as the player of the (short) series. Jaggernauth took 5-91, which was still good.

Chanderpaul was the best batsman in the series on my side, but Strauss was the best of the series.

[patrickF690]

richardson and jaggernauth are lethal in this game

[Imager36]

Considering how well we did in that last test series, 9 of the 12 players who were part of that campaign have also been invited to stay on for the One Day Series against England. The full squad is:-

Openers
C.Gayle
D.Ramdin (I think positivity on my part'll see him through!)

Batsmen
R.Sarwan
S.Chanderpaul
B.Nash
D.Richards
R.Currency

All-Rounders
D.Bravo
N.Deonarine
D.Bernard

Quicks
A.Richardson
F.Edwards
N.Pascal

Spinners
V.Permaul
A.Jaggernauth

Permaul, who plays for Guyana, and Currency, who currently does not have a team, are the two surprises of the squad for most. They have both played well domestically, and Permaul, at 19, could well be a front-line spinner in the future.

The team for the first ODI against England is:-

Gayle
Ramdin
Chanderpaul
Sarwan
Currency
Nash
Bravo
Jaggernauth
Richardson
Pascal
Permaul

[Chasjs]

Keep it up. I'm sure Ramdin will do well there once he's adapted. He's strong against pace and isn't aggressive should open well the more aggressive Gayle (I don't think it's a particularly good idea to open with 2 aggressive batsmen).

[Imager36]

Well, with my confidence behind Ramdin and my new boys, I pushed onto what was to become the first properly disasterous loss of my reign.



I had expected my batting to at least challenge the total set by England, but to start with, the two young bowlers (Pascal and Permaul) were too expensive, although Pascal made up for it with three important wickets.

The only two decent batsmen have their scores in the picture with them, and to hopefully add balance to the side, the newly recovered Richards will enter the team in place of the young spinner Permaul. He will, most likely, get a chance in the third one dayer.



Well, on the bright side, at least Ramdin seems to be coming into his own, with 119 off 163. Chanderpaul's 56 and Currency's 38 also made sure that we got a reasonable amount. The target we set, however, never seemed enough, and Cook (146*) and Strauss (64) knocked them out very quickly, and only Pascal and Jaggernauth did well.

Richardson, Sarwan Out - Permaul, Bernard In

[goldfan]

Bad luck Imager, looks like Ramdin could just prove to have been a good call I think we'll all wait and see on that one in the future!

[Imager36]

Hmm... we really haven't got the one dayers yet, have we.



The batting was reasonably atrocious, I'm not sure how we managed in the tests. Ramdin and Currency somehow managed to survive without getting any runs whatsoever, and Pascal and Permaul were the only success stories in another awful bowling performance. Few will survive until the T20 world cup.

I've created a real shortlist-kind-of-thing here:-

We have decided on some definate players for the squad, and a shortlist for the remaining places. The already selected players are:-

1. C.Gayle (O)
2. D.Ramdin (wk) (O)
3. S.Chanderpaul (Bat)
4. D.Richards (Bat)
5. R.Sarwan (Bat)
6. D.Bravo (All)
7. D.Bernard (All)
8. N.Deonarine (Asp)
9. A.Jaggernauth (Spin)
10. A.Richardson (Seam)

There are 5 places remaining, therefore, in the squad, we would like these places to be filled in this way:-

1. Opener
2. Batsman
3. Seamer
4. All Rounder/All Round Spin Bowler
5. Any other player

Choices for the position of Opener
Runako Morton - One day average of 38.29
Devon Smith - T20 average of 30.5
Tamar Lambert - One day average of 37.57

Choices for the position of Batsman
Adrian Barath - One day average of 31.67, young talent
Romel Currency - One day average of 39.18, ODI average of 33.5
Kevin Stoute - Given as all-rounder, his bowling is not sufficient to use, batting average of 41.2 in one dayers.

Choices for the position of Seamer
Nelon Pascal - One day bowling average of 21.67, ODI bowling average of 28
Jerome Taylor - One day bowling average of 25.33, ODI bowling average of 26.26

Choices for the position of All Rounder/All Round Spin Bowler
Kieron Pollard - One day batting average of 29.7, T20 batting average of 26.75, One day bowling average of 18.67, T20 bowling average of 18.42.
Ryan Hinds - One day batting of 29.63, one day bowling of 27.41

Choices for the position of Any other player
ANY REJECTED PLAYER FOR THE FIRST 4 PLACES
Kavesh Kantasingh - SLA with a one day bowling average of 14.64
Taruwar Kohli - Punjab RM bowler with one day bowling average of 23.14 and batting potential

[Imager36]

The players who were decided upon were:-

1. Runako Morton
2. Romel Currency
3. Nelon Pascal
4. Kieron Pollard
5. Adrian Barath (2nd choice for batsman, makes it in as any other player)

And the team for the first T20 match is:-

C.Gayle
D.Ramdin
S.Chanderpaul
R.Sarwan
R.Currency
A.Barath
K.Pollard
D.Bravo
N.Deonarine
D.Bernard
N.Pascal