Australia won the away Test series 3-0.
For about two decades or more, the West Indies have had a long-standing issue of producing quality batters. The same team that saw legendary Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s average soar to 51 in Tests, recently collapsed to 27 in the fourth innings against Australia. The mighty pace attack of the hosts reduced Pat Cummins & Co. to scores of 225 and 121 in the third and last Test of the already-lost series. It could’ve been an easy win from there, to amass 200 odd runs in the last innings for the scoreline to be 1-2. But the phrase ’27 all out’ took over the Internet on Monday, July 14. Veteran players have pointed fingers at India and its T20 competition, the Indian Premier League (IPL).
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The credit indeed goes to the duo of Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland. Starc, playing his 100th Test, took six wickets in the fourth innings, out of which he picked up three wickets in the first over. He reduced the hosts to a football score of 0-3. In the fifth over, he picked up two more wickets on consecutive deliveries. Boland joined the madness with a hat-trick in the 14th over.
While the low total by the Windies is equal parts concerning and embarrassing for the players, veteran cricketer Brian Lara has placed the blame away.
“We played first-class cricket and some of us even played county cricket to try to get into the West Indies team. We are now using the Western East team as a stepping stone, as a stage for us to get, you know, contracts around. And that is not a fault of the player,” Lara spoke on cricket podcast ‘Stick To Cricket’
BCCI recently made participation in Ranji Trophy matches compulsory for reputed stars, including Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. As it turns out, a similar pressure doesn’t exist from the other cricket boards. Playing FC cricket helps build the endurance to play longer innings as that in Test matches.
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The highest knock of 11 by Justin Greaves was followed by Mikyle Louis and Alzarri Joseph’s top contributions of four runs each. Seven out of 11 batters were dismissed for a duck.
However, former England player David Lloyd, speaking on the same podcast, feels the board is in a sorry state for different reasons. He directly held India, England, and Australia accountable for the rise of T20 leagues and amassing lucrative broadcast deals.
“The big three, they take all the money. England, Australia, India take off the money. They get the big broadcast deals. You’ve got to have a more even distribution to allow West Indies, New Zealand, Sri Lanka to complete,” said Llyod.
Truth be told, the boards are responsible for granting NOCs to play in the T20 leagues across the nations. India’s IPL 2025 saw the biggest participation of as many as 22 players from the West Indies. On the other hand, 10 English players and 16 Australians participated in the Indian domestic league.
Additionally, the difference in format also leads to differences in approach. In IPL and other T20 leagues, the batters are expected to smash from ball one. But in Tests, one needs patience to defend the ball. It also requires higher ball knowledge, which only comes from playing more and more of FC cricket. However, the rise of T20 leagues has led to West Indies players shifting their focus away from the FC format.
About a few weeks ago, Nicholas Pooran, one of the best power hitters in the shorter format, retired from the Maroon jersey to focus on T20 leagues. He last played FC cricket in 2020.
Thus, the onus of 27 all out falls equally on the players, the board, while credit is due to fantastic Aussie bowling at Sabina Park.
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