Missing consistency

Speaking following the draw in the final Test at Queen’s Park Oval here Monday, Simmons said the Windies had shown what they were capable of but had failed to produce for sustained periods of time throughout the series. 

“The series was a little bit too up and down … we played well in a cluster, maybe two hours, three hours sometimes and then the next two hours we would be down and I think that for me that was the major disappointment,” he said.

“We’ve shown that we can do things but not consistently. We batted well in Jamaica but went and did the same thing in the third Test we did in the first Test so for that, I think it’s disappointing we weren’t consistent enough.”

West Indies opened the series disastrously, slumping to an innings and 92-run defeat inside four days at the Vivian Richards Cricket Ground in Antigua, failing to get 250 in either innings. 

In the second Test at Sabina Park, however, they turned in a superb performance to bat the entire last day to reach 388 for six in their second innings and stave off defeat. 

Without warning, West Indies reverted to their bad habits in the St Lucia Test, losing by 237 runs after being dismissed in their second innings for 108 – their second lowest ever Test score against India. Simmons, who has been in charge of the squad for just over a year, said one of the major problems was that the first class system was not properly preparing players for the challenges of international cricket. 

“In some cases you have to adjust techniques … and this is something we should be doing at a level below (first class level),” Simmons explained. 

“The same thing with mentality because I think when we come up here, it’s a lot harder to get runs and to get wickets. At our domestic level it is a lot easier, so that patience and time at the crease is not tested. 

“If you bat two sessions in a domestic game, a lot of the guys who are playing here would have a hundred or more, if you bat two sessions here you could be 60 or 70, so the patience and domestic level is not tested as much as it is up here.” 

West Indies entered the final Test here hoping to salvage something from the series but only two hours of play was possible in the entire Test at Port of Spain.