Well tried, West Indies

The first Test of the 2011 series between India and the West Indies was won by India in Delhi last Wednesday and looking at the scoreboard, it was an easy, comfortable and decisive victory by five wickets; by six wickets if we forget that Yuvraj Singh was bowled by a 'grubber' from Darren Sammy with the score tied, with India needing one run to win.

It was, however, far from easy, or comfortable.

With the West Indies batting first after winning the toss and scoring 304; and then with India and all their great batsmen - certainly Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman, tumbling for 209 - it was left to the home team to pull out all the stops to remove the West Indies for 180 in their second innings and then to emphasise their class in reaching 275 for five and to win in three-and-a-half days, with one-and-a-half days to spare.

It was, up to the start of the fourth day, with India, even though they were on 152 for two with Dravid and Tendulkar still batting, touch and go as to who would have won the Test match and it was touch and go because of some good bowling, especially from the West Indies bowlers as a group, and spinners Pragyan Ojha and Ravichandran Ashwin as individuals, on a pitch that played low and slow, but with generally predictable bounce throughout the match.

In the end, with Ojha and Ashwin each pocketing six wickets in an innings, with all their batsmen answering the call in the second innings, India ran out winners and heartiest congratulations to them, especially after they lost so decisively recently in England, especially after recovering to win by scoring their third-highest score ever to win a Test match.

It was tough on the West Indies to lose the match and after fighting their way to 269 for five at the start of the second morning, after losing five wickets for 35 runs, it was most disappointing, especially that the contest was all over inside four days.

Win or lose, however, it was, all things considered, a pleasing performance by the West Indies and one which every West Indian, or everyone who loves West Indies cricket, should be proud of, or at least be reasonably satisfied with.

It was not the West Indies at their best, it was not West Indies bowling at its best, it was not West Indies fielding at its best, it was not West Indies captaincy at its best and it certainly was not West Indies batting at its best, not when we remember batsmen like Everton Weekes, Garry Sobers, Rohan Kanhai, Viv Richards, Richie Richardson and Jimmy Adams in India and against Indian spin.

It was, however, refreshing to see the team, every member of it, giving everything in the hunt for victory for the entire match. It was almost as if coach Ottis Gibson, captain Darren Sammy, assistant coach David Williams, batting adviser Desmond Haynes and manager Richie Richardson had drilled them into a fight to the end, into believing in the motto of the Musketeers, 'one for all and all for one'.

It was a good performance by a team lacking in almost every department of the game, by a team not yet fully developed and, therefore, by a team not yet accustomed to performing at a high standard at the highest level, or even at the first-class level, but one which believed in their ability and their skills.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the one class player on the team, did his thing; he scored a century, 118, he hit the top score in the second innings and he batted, in both innings, with authority; Fidel Edwards bowled well and with pace; Bishoo bowled well; and Kirk Edwards batted well, to a point.

Brilliant behind the stumps

Carlton Baugh was simply brilliant behind the stumps. A stumping to get rid of Sehwag off Bishoo in the first innings and a catch to remove Ashwin off Sammy were amazing.

It is only a pity Baugh cannot match his new-found skill as a wicketkeeper with his performance with the bat. He bats sometimes, most times in Test matches and one-day internationals, as if he is a gambler.

The West Indies did not win the Test match, the truth is that it was difficult for them to have won it and they may not win a match on this tour, not only because they may not be able to unsettle India's batsmen again because of their limited bowling, but also because their batsmen, except for Chanderpaul, simply cannot cope with India's spinners.

While the West Indies batsmen may be able to survive for a while by prodding forward, with the exception of Chanderpaul they are not confident enough, not equipped technically to go at them, to score runs off them and that is the problem.

By batting the way they do, they encourage the spin bowlers to corner them and to cut them down.

On the same pitch that the West Indies batsmen pushed and poked their way to their death, to 84 for seven in the second innings, Sehwag, for example, scored 55 off 46 deliveries and 55 off 55 deliveries at the top of India's innings while setting the stage and leading India to victory.

What happened in Bangladesh was nothing. The opposition was weak.

The test, the real test was in Delhi, as it will be in Kolkata tomorrow (tonight local time) and so far, despite the promise and the feeling that something is happening, the West Indies have come out second best and will come out second best for the entire series.

The West Indies players look eager and they appear willing to work hard and to learn. To improve, however, to develop to the stage where they cannot only compete but defeat the best, they need a good club season, they need a longer first-class season, they need a first-class season that is really a first-class season, they need a season playing regularly against tough opposition, they need a season playing against different types of bowlers and different types of pitches and they need a season that will provide them with tough, keen opposition from start to finish.

As good as it may seem to those players who are given 'a chance', the players who represent the West Indies, the players who are being developed to represent the West Indies, the players who are good enough to represent the West Indies do not need a season playing with players from the High Performance Centre (HPC) and the Combined Colleges and Campuses (CCC).

The players from the HCP and the CCC are there to learn, some of them how to play cricket, some of them to study and they should not mix, not competitively, with professional cricketers.

The ones that are good enough, and there are quite a few of those around, should represent their country where everything is serious, everyone is serious about cricket and where they want to go from ball-to-ball, from day-to-day.

More importantly, the HPC should be a place for promising cricketers to spend a little time sharpening their game. They have no right playing in a representative professional first-class tournament, and players at the HPC should not be selected from there into a Test team, or even an 'A' team.

If the West Indies do not change their methods, their system of development, they will continue, for the time being, to be better than Bangladesh and to lose to India, England, South Africa and even Australia, if what happened in Cape Town on Friday is a true reflection of the present state of Australia's cricket.

In a thrilling and dramatic performance, South Africa staged a recovery beyond belief to defeat the former world champions by eight wickets inside three days after Australia had scored 284 off 75 overs, with Michael Clarke hitting a majestic 151 off 176 deliveries after going to bat at 40 for three, and after they were bowled out for 96 in 24.3 overs, to hand Australia a lead of 188.

South Africa, in a truly outstanding effort, then ripped out Australia for an embarrassing 47 in 18 overs, Australia's lowest score since 1902, and with Graeme Smith and Hashim Amla batting on a pitch which had little effect on the game and scoring 101 not out and 112, respectively, leading them to 236 for two off 50.3 overs, they raced to victory with well over two days to spare.

For Australia, it could have been worse: at 21 for nine, after losing six wickets for eight runs in five overs to collapse from 13 for three, they could easily have been routed for the lowest total of all time in Test cricket, 26 by New Zealand against England in Auckland in 1955.