Ok this week is gonna be a very sporty week and I will begin by speaking about one thing that I should've posted from the weekend but just never got around to doing, and that is with regards to the West Indies and their massive beat down at the hands of a much better and much hungrier South Africa squad. I'm pretty sure most of the people who read this site see cricket and start to groan instantly and complain about how it makes no sense anymore and that its a waste of time, but sadly I cant say that I am one of them. I am one of the lone people who still watch cricket and as games end I need to speak my mind about the team and their performace.

Quite frankly the teams performance sucked... There is no other way to put it. I am not one to sugarcoat things as anyone who has read my articles will realize, and the only way to properly describe the performance of the West Indies would be poor and nothing for the team members to be proud of. It seems to me that the West Indies have mastered the art of pulling defeat from the clutches of victory, as was shown in the latter 3 one day matches. One can only hope that the embarassment which they faced as a result of the continued white washes over the years will somehow spur them to victory.

**Taken from Jamaica Gleaner

Two many times have the windows fallen as victim to misfields, poor batting, and even poorer bowling. How many catches were dropped during the series. One may remember in game 3 I think, where around 2 key catches were dropped on Amla, Duminy and Kallis... the same players who almost singlehandedly beat down every single score set by the West Indies. Especially Hashim Amla, I think only once did he manage to not score less than a half century. How can one expect to win a game if they cannot take control of easy opportunities to win, or at least put themselves in an advantageous position.

Then there is the batting performance. Am I the only one who realizes... No wait everyone realizes because the commentators say it. Does the West Indies team realize that in every instance where Chris Gayle fails to perform the entire team quickly collapses? I mean previously when we had an on form Chivnarine Chanderpaul, and an on form Marlon Samuels, and even further back to when we had Brian Lara, where Chris Gayle failed, there was somebody to pickup the slack, somebody would at least give some form of competition to the opposing team. Compare that to the final one day, only 2 people managed to put up a reasonable score in Chanderpaul and Deonarine, one middle and one lower order batsman out of a team of 10 batsmen. While South Africa (who's captain is also on poor batting form currently) has managed to at every game pull out at least 4 reasonable batting performances even while they were staring defeat in the face.

**Taken from Jamaica Observer

I really dont even want to go into the bowling and the fielding setup. Where it seems that the field is set to allow the opposing team to make as many runs as possible (albeit through singles) through a defensive setup, instead of an attacking setup forcing the batsmen to go on their back foot and rethink their strategy. The bowling is also quite tasteless and is simply not really that challenging, it is very rarely that you see some change in bowling line or length to through the batsmen for a loop. Is it that our bowlers simply cannot do it? I would disagree with that based on the fact that on occassion you do some some stroke of brilliance from the bowlers, and when that stroke of brilliance that comes out most of the times somebody is taken out.

What is it that makes Austrailia, India, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Pakistan different from the West Indies? Is it talent? Is it money? Is it skill? Is it staffing? I dont believe its any of that, we do have the talent, and we do have the money and the staff (look at how many past greats are still around today, why is Michael Holding still commentating instead of teaching the players how to bowl like he once did?), but still we are losing. I think it is none of the above, instead it is simply that we dont have the will or the drive to win anymore.  All in all however, this white wash is simply another disappointment and embarassment to West Indians all over the world.