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| May 24, 2002 | Friday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 11,1423 |
West Indies have finally turned the corner: Hooper
KINGSTON (Jamaica), May 23: West Indies captain Carl Hooper said the Test series triumph over India Wednesday was a sign that his team had finally turned the corner.
The home side bowled India out for 252 on the final morning of the deciding fifth Test after setting the tourists a victory target of 408 and consequently bouncing back from successive series losses to Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
“We are making progress and I think finally turning the corner,” Hooper said.
But the 35-year-old said there was still a long way to go for his team.
“There is a lot of hard work to do still, better teams out there to play. Maybe one day when we can compete with an Australian side, it would be time to say we have truly turned the corner and are back on top.”
West Indies, who dominated cricket in the late 1970s and early 1980s, have lost 24 of their last 27 away Tests in the last five years.
“The important thing is we got a result today,” Hooper said. “We’ve been in situations before where we have played good cricket and still not come away with positive results.”
Hooper said the key was for the side to not be complacent during their rebuilding process.
“It’s very important that we watch what we do in the next Test series, which is only a couple weeks away. There are also 10 one-day games and we can’t afford to be complacent or get carried away.”
New Zealand tour West Indies for a Test and one-day series following a five-match limited-overs tournament with India starting this weekend.
Hooper said he was thrilled because some of the younger players had played a crucial role in the series, which saw West Indies recover after losing the second Test in Trinidad by 37 runs.
“A lot of young players are doing well, which is encouraging,” he said. “Adam Sanford and Pedro Collins bowled really well, Wavell Hinds did well as opener and the middle-order came good when it mattered.”
Sanford, who had made his debut in the first Test at Georgetown, finished with 15 wickets in the series.
“It’s very important to have a full strength side through the next few months,” Hooper said.
“I don’t think we have got the depth in the West Indies cricket to miss a few key players and perform at the level we want to. If we miss a Brian Lara or a Mervyn Dillon, the side is obviously weakened.”
The 35-year-old skipper top scored with 579 runs in the series with Shivnarine Chanderpaul close behind with 562 at an average of 140.5
Dillon was the top wicket-taker with 23, taking his career tally up to 99.
Indian skipper Saurav Ganguly admitted his side the series lost in their minds rather than on the field.
“We lost the series in our heads rather than anywhere else,” Ganguly said. “We do not lack ability but there has got to be something in our minds that makes us lose overseas crunch games like this.”
India had lost the second of two Tests against Zimbabwe last year and then fallen in the deciding third Test in Sri Lanka after winning the second game in Kandy.
“If we were a poor team abroad we wouldn’t have won matches in Bulawayo, Kandy and here in Trinidad,” Ganguly said.
“The problem lies somewhere else. We need to give something extra in crunch situations. That’s what makes a good team. Our nine straight losses in one-day finals also suggest a similar trend.”
The tourists achieved their first Test victory in the Caribbean in over 26 years by winning the second Test but lost in Barbados after getting bowled out for 102 in the first innings on a fast track.
“They played better than us in Barbados and here in Jamaica,” Ganguly said.
“The foreign conditions were not the problem. We just didn’t bat well on a good wicket at Barbados, where we only needed to see off the first 10 overs when the ball was moving.”
Coach John Wright said he was disappointed by the team’s inability to rise to the occasion.
“We were coming into a decider and everyone was aware of that,” he said. “When you are playing in foreign conditions, it’s not easy to win a series and you need to up your standard.”
Back home, the experts slammed the Indians.
“We lost a golden opportunity... after a gap of 16 years,” former skipper Ajit Wadekar said. “We lost because we didn’t click when it mattered.”
Chief selector Chandu Borde blamed the batsmen’s inability to come good on pacy tracks overseas.
India have remained almost unassailable on slow, turning tracks at home but have struggled overseas on livelier pitches. There have been constant calls to prepare faster pitches.
“We should have these fast wickets at home. Otherwise, this will remain a problem,” he said.
Borde said the fast bowlers also should share the blame for failing to provide early breakthroughs in Jamaica after India chose to bowl on a pacy pitch.
Borde agreed in part with Ganguly’s assessment that his players lacked mental strength.
“To a certain extent he is right. The psychological thing plays a huge part.”
Wadekar criticised Ganguly’s decision to field first in Jamaica. “It was wrong. When you don’t know the wicket, it is better to bat first. And we are not good chasers,” he said.
The Indian media focussed on the side’s poor overseas record.
“Same ending, familiar sight for India,” blared the headline in the Indian Express while the caption in the Hindustan Times read: “Dream over, Indians wake up to reality.”
The Times of India, in its report titled “Windies rip India down the middle” criticised the strong middle-order for not performing when it mattered.
India stay in West Indies for five One-day Internationals before travelling to England next month for four Tests and a one-day tri-series also involving Sri Lanka.—Reuters
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