Nottingham, England – West Indies coach Ottis Gibson said the batting of Marlon Samuels and Darren Sammy was a source of encouragement for him during the second Test against England, which ended on Monday.
Samuels and Sammy both hit first innings hundreds and twice linked up for vital partnerships in the match at Trent Bridge.
They added a record 204 – the highest by any visiting Test side in England for the seventh wicket – in the first innings to revive West Indies chances after they crumbled to 136 for six.
They also shared 49 for the same stand in the second innings, helping West Indies recover from a shaky 61 for six and set England 108 to victory, which the hosts achieved by nine wickets.
Samuels hit a sparkling 117 in the first innings and followed it up with an unbeaten 76 in the second innings.
Gibson felt that Samuels’ two knocks were a sign of him becoming more mature with his approach to batting.
“He’s come on this tour, after he spoke to the board and was allowed to miss the Australia Test series,” said Gibson.
“He came on this tour perhaps with a point to prove and he’s proven his point.
“He’s played fantastically well in the middle order. He and Shivnarine (Chanderpaul) have had a lot of work to do and he’s done that work exceptionally well.”
Sammy’s first innings 106 was his maiden Test hundred and he also made 25 in the second innings.
Gibson said he hoped this would help to relieve the level of criticism aimed at the West Indies captain.
“It saved us from a pretty dire situation,” said Gibson. “He works very hard, he’s an honest cricketer and it’s always pleasing when that hard work pays off.
“In his case, the amount of criticism he’s been getting even from some of our own people, makes it even more special for him.
“I was delighted for him as I was for Marlon as well. But we didn’t utilise the hard work they’d done.”
Gibson said West Indies had to learn to manage tough situations much better than they have in the first two Tests.
“We are playing the No.1 team in the World and it is difficult to expect that we are going to come and beat them,” he said. “We challenged them [in the first Test] at Lord’s, we challenged them here for periods as well, but not for long enough to create any winning opportunities.
“It is not entirely a technical thing. It is being able to repeat your skill over and over again. That is what top teams in the World do: they test your technique; they test your character; they test your mental strength. Perhaps, this is where we are falling short. We are doing the hard work, but we are not doing it for long enough.
“When England make it tough for [our batsmen], we get out far easier than they do. That is a concern. But we have shown that when we do the right things, we can cause problems to the England team, but we are not doing it consistently enough at the moment.”
Gibson said West Indies will use their two-day, tour match against Leicestershire at Grace Road in Leicester to give some of the players the opportunity to regain their confidence.
“The top-order needs more time in the middle it seems and we will give them every opportunity in that game,” he said.
“We have got a good week off to go back and sort of reflect on where we are the moment and what we can salvage out of the rest of the series with one Test match to go and look at all the different options that we have available.”
The third and final Test starts on June 7 at Edgbaston in Birmingham.
MANY CRITICS HAVE JUDGED SAMMY’S POSITION ON THE WEST INDIES MAINLY ON PERFORMANCE NOT ON HIS ABILITY TO LEAD THE W.I. TEAM. NOW THAT SAMMY IS RANKED NUMBER 7 AS AN ALLROUNDER AND NUMBER 25 AS A BOWLER ON THE ICC RANKINGS,I HOPE THEM CRITICS ESPECIALLY FROM THE LARGER COUNTRIES WILL CONCENTRATE THEIR MOEVA LANGUE ON CRICKETERS LIKE KIRT EDWARDS,ADRIAN BARRATH,DARREN BRAVO,RANDIN AND POWEL.
Well said Gibson, I will not add or subtract anything from your comment.
DNO, why are you not publishing my comments? I am not insulting anyone I simply putting out recorded facts; yet you keep playing politice with me. Between Friday and yesterday I wrote three of them and you put out none. This morning I put out another one and again you failed to put it out. When I wrote this morning you only had three comments out; by now you have seven but mine has not found favor with you. I thought you were only doing that with politics when I hit on Skeritte but I now realize you have me locked out. Good lock!
@As I see it #1 –
….DNO giving you some pressure dere man…lol. And whole day i dere looking for your exhortations on cricket for me to offer the regular corrections…. :wink:. I even say you went on a vacation.
DNO maybe was just busy today.
For the West Indies to be competitive on this world stage they have to field their best team which would include the likes of Gayle and Sarwan. West Indies need to learn to eliminate the horrendous sessions which cost them to lose these matches. Everyone talks about the top four, the top four but it’s actually the open batsmen I would drop. Bravo and Edwards deserve their chances and are just struggling at the moment. Every batsman encounters difficult series at some point in their career but Bravo and Edwards have proved themselves thus far. Just take a look at Samuels who seems to be reaping the benefits of added cricket exposure referring to the IPL. Bring back GAYLE!
Sammy is yes boy. This is the real reason why Gibson loves him. How much has Gibson done for west indies cricket. Did anybody hear what Sarwan said of the mental beating that he took? Do you do that to grown people? Imagine Sarwan said he wouldn’t go back to the team right now because his county team gave him back his confidence. Come now people, the
likes of Holden have their biases but they know why they saytheyrhings they say. Windows cricket board check yourself. The west indies cricket team doesn’t belong to you all. It belongs to us. Do the bat and right thing for our cricket.
I believe our deep love and passion for West Indies cricket has led some of us to overlook the obvious reason for our current lack of success. At present, we do not have an abundance of cricket talent in the region as we once did. As a result, many of our marginally talented youngsters continue to fall short of reaching their perceived cricketing potential. How can one draw blood from a stone?
Success in any arena requires talent along with professional dedication and discipline. We now have a professional cricket academy to help develop our promising youngsters, yet today,s West Indies players would be run off the pitch by the individual Shell Shield teams of the ’70’s and ’80’s. Please recall that there were no cricket academies back then. However, those players still managed to cultivate a winning attitude and approach while out-classing the best of the rest of the world. Back then, if a player did not produce upon call up to the West Indies team, he would be promptly dropped, never to be seen wearing the maroon cap again.
Today, the West Indies team is full of several underachieving retreads who make it into team on a “lesser of all evil” philosophy and not necessarily on merit. We seem to be caught up in a perpetual state of cricket insanity where the W.I.C.B. continues to do same things over and over while expecting a different result. Sorry for the pessimistic view but reality says the West Indies are now closer to cricketing abyss than pinnacle.
Gibson said ” he hoped this (Sammy’s 106) would help relief the level of criticism aimed at the West Indies captain.” He went on to say that sammy works very hard and is an honest cricket.
So it is very clear that Sammy’s job is to protect Gibson’ reputation as he is always busy to big up Gibson for his hard work. In return, Gibson’s job is to protect Sammy, as he did yesterday. I wonder what he is getting at by saying Sammy is a hard worker and honest cricketer? Are others not hard working and honest?
The fact is, while I am happy for Sammy on his maiden test century, what is very clear is that both he and Gibson are to be blamed with where our cricket is today.
We play sammy as our all rounder and it took him 29 tests to record his first test 100. In fact it was Sammy himself that said that he never faced 150 balls in a test before. What a shame! You mean all rounder and captain? Is it unfair to criticise him?
Sammy replaced Gayle as captain. Gayle’s record as captain reads: # of games as captain =15; Wins =3; loss =4; draws =8. Sammy’s record as captain all under Gibson’s tenure: # of games =18; wins=2; losses=8; drawn =8. The record of both Gibson and Sammy speaks for themselves. How in the world are we doing better without Gayle, Sanwan, Nash, and all the other senior cricketers we have lost since Gibson became coach?
@As I see it #1 – Helloo again to you. Trust you had a most pleasant weekend. I will just highlight the major flaw in your argument. You have once again blamed Otis Gibson and Darren Sammy for the West Indies present state and selectively ignored the full facts. Ohh my.
Otis Gibson and Sammy came and took charge of a West Indies team in late 2009 that had slipped to #8 in world test cricket rankings. Who then were the players that through their poor and inconsistent performances especially in the 2000 – 2009 era brought the team down to the state that Sammy and Gibson met it in?
you expect sammy and the other girls to win match.. sot
The current West Indies team is actually the worst i’ve seen on paper.There is no metal,fortitude,pride: its lack luster like we would say ‘so what!” The batting begins at 5 and ends at 8.The first 4 batsmen should be dropped.They need to work on their mental aspect of the sport..These guys are playing the bowlers and not the ball.The third test im hoping they can play their natural game.
My Dear Windies team — the recurring problem on this tour so far is that the first four batsmen in the batting line up get out to quickly and cheaply. The 1st four batsmen need to sharpen their batting techniques and put a higher price on their wickets.
Good effort from Samuels and Sammy in the batting aspect. Well Team Windies, recoil and come again strongly at England in the third test.
WI ALL In!!
Powell is not ready. His foot movement is poor. They are thrusting the kid into the fire way too quick. Barath continues to be rewarded for his failures and Kirk Edwards just seems to be out of it. Why not bring back Gayle and Sarwan?
At this point there is nothing to lose. I would also like to see Roach and Jerome Taylor leading the bowling attack.
@CaH-C-Bruce – I have a problem with this persistent call by some among us for players like Gayle, Sarwan, Taylor and Jerome Taylor. These players have been in the West Indies team for the better part of the 2000 – 2009 era – an era in which the West Indies have suffered a high percentage of their worst defeats.
Why all of a sudden do some people believe that the above mentioned players are the ‘saviours’ of West Indies cricket and that their return will solve the Windies struggle of winning consistently?
Also are you aware that Jerome Taylor over the last year has not even been able to make his Jamaica national team starting 11 on a regular basis?
West Indies need to get Gayle, Sarwan and Taylor back. Good for Sammy, he scored a hundred but what about the likes of Barath, Powell and Edwards who continue to fail us?
I am so sick of being humiliated and really contemplating stopping watching cricket all together.
DNO this is a feel-good article. The fact is WI has lost yet again and this is the headline, irrespective of what the coach or anyone says. Come on! What has happened to the batting in the 2nd innings? What happened to the craving for a crucial victory in this test? When is this circus going to stop? When are we going to replace the “moments of brilliance” that we have unwillingly accepted and become accustomed to of late with sustained quality and professional performance? When are the headlines going to read “WI Wins” rather than “Windies batting wobbled in defeat?” Is this a lack of talent or a collective lack of mental fortitude and perhaps the absence of pride in self and purpose?.
For a long time now, we have hoped that West Indies can indeed find the winning formula. At the end of Day 2 of this test, it seemed as if we could. We sincerely hoped against hope that we could preserve one of our last standing cherished records of being unbeaten at Trent Bridge. We hoped for a victory after the 1st inning recovery both with the bat and then the ball. But alas! It wasn’t to be. In the 2nd inning, we found our way back to the place where we appear to be comfortable.
Yes…even with a team blessed with the extraordinary talent of Lara, Galye, Sarwan et all, we have become accustomed to having “moments of brilliance” only to face defeat after defeat and establishing dubious rather than cherished records. We continue to slide lower in the international rankings. We now require a greater effort from all parties including the players, the captain, the coaches, the WICB (its selectors and COE).
I shall reiterate the call for the immediate recall of Gayle, Sarwan and Bravo. Whereas our star players like Gayle must be team players, who understand that they are not bigger than the team/game, the WICB must also embrace the dynamics of globalization and the pressures its faces on star players with international demand for their talents. Star international players cannot be treated as ‘little boys’. Players have rights too and their rights to defend these rights must be respected.
As the UK Guardian has concluded, “Chris Gayle might rock West Indies’ boat but he would stop its drifting… Losing gallantly will continue to be West Indies’ lot if they cannot get their best players on board” I cannot but agree.
Indeed, Gayle may have to eat the bullet and retract the offensive statements made in his open assessment of the management of West Indies cricket. The Board must be mature and responsible in accepting his apology moving on. Just as no player is above the game, no Board is bigger than the game. What about the fans, who support the team? West Indian cricket is about us as a people and therefore the WICB cannot allow its petty politics to drown out the cries of the majority of fans all over the world calling for the return of Gayle and Sarwan.
While the WICB, selectors and coaches are not to be blamed for the demise of WI cricket but they cannot be totally exonerated. The WICB needs to exhibit greater sensitivity to the economic realities of players, considering the relatively short and fragile life of their careers. The Board must work closely with our star players so that they can contribute to the development of WI cricket while remaining free to exploit other international opportunities.
I shall always support WI cricket but the continuous disappointments are really, really painful.
I fully support this article. The top order batsmen are just not ready for the international level and the WICB needs to do the honourable thing and recall the tried and proven batsmen like Sarwan and Gayle. Losing is losing. We are ready to win our bowlers always give us a chance but our top order batsmen are pathetic to say the least