West Indies v Zimbabwe: Immediate Reactions after first Test match
"We led for four days and about one session, and in the last two hours, got bowled out brilliantly
Colin Croft
22-Mar-2000
David Houghton - Zimbabwe's Cricket Coach:
"We led for four days and about one session, and in the last two
hours, got bowled out brilliantly. Remember, it is never over until
the fat lady sings. She tuned up well today. The West Indies fast
bowlers, Walsh, Ambrose, King and Rose were magnificent. They bowled
47 overs, and there was hardly a ball to be hit anywhere off the
square. The fact that we are all out was one thing, but we only
scored 63 runs.
It was a great example of disciplined line and length bowling from the
West Indian fast bowlers. There was not much I could do today. Today
was all about the players on the field being able to control their
nerves well and see the game through. It was a very nervous time for
me. I actually went and took a walk around the block as the tension
was getting to me. I simply could not watch at one stage. At the end
of the day, we simply were not strong enough mentally. We simply did
not seem to have that belief in our ability to win. We have only won 3
Tests in our short history.
We did not have that belief today. The more the pressure mounted, the
more the effort flowed into the West Indies and the more it ebbed out
of us. I hope that this does not keep us down for too long. At least
we are a young side, and we do try and learn from our results. I am
just hoping that in Jamaica, we get on to a pitch which is more fluent
in runs.
Those runs tended to dry up here at Trinidad. The last 16-17
wickets fell for about 90 runs. It was not exactly a high-scoring
game. Our positives were that we actually bowled and batted with some
discipline too, for about three-quarters of the game. Our bowlers
were particularly impressive in both innings, and Andy Flower innings
was very gutsy indeed. We have got to work on our batting a bit, to
be quite honest, but I hope that we can get a pitch in Jamaica which
would allow us to play a few more shots."
David Rudder - Calysonian & Composer/Singer of the West Indies
Cricket Team anthem `Rally 'round the West Indies':
"We finally woke up and started the battle today. If we can continue
to play the way we played this morning, then I think that we are
halfway there. History helped us today. We tend to fight when our
backs are against the wall. I remember that one-off game against
South Africa in 1992 in Barbados. It was a similar situation. I
think that, mentally, some of the old hands who played in that game
remembered the effort and passed it on to the youths of the team.
The old guys led the way. Look, I know that (Curtly) Ambrose,
psychologically, knows the (Queens Park) Oval is his ground, in a
sense. (Franklyn) Rose, in the meantime, really rose to the occasion.
Forgive the pun. That was the difference. The outfielding was way
ahead of what we have been doing for a long time. If a man is good
and he is 45 years old, and he is performing, and the others cannot
come up to standard, you keep that man. With all the joy of victory,
I think that we still need to look seriously at our batting. We still
have to correct a lot of things there. Although I have the anthem
for Westr Indies cricket, for which I feel pretty honored, I feel
pretty good about this win, so I would want to dedicate my new song
"It does not get any better than this" to the West Indies team."
Roger Harper - New cricket coach of the West Indies cricket team:
"Look, I am very delighted at this win, but this is not about me. The
focus should not be on me. I am just one of the support team behind
the team on the field. They went out there and they got the job done.
All along, these guys wanted to show everyone that they loved playing
for the West Indies, and are committed to turning things around. They
did just that today. On that last night, instead of focussing on the
fact that we did not get as many runs as we may have wanted, we
decided that whatever score we had on the scoreboard, they (Zimbabwe)
still had to make them to win.
Whatever we had, had to be enough. We could not add any more to it.
Whatever we ended up with, we were prepared to go out there and
defend it. The guys stuck to the plan and were very disciplined. They
bowled magnificently as a unit and we fielded with great enthusiasm
and passion. You could not ask for anything better. I am not really
worried about the batting, but, yes, I think that we must pay a lot of
attention to the batting.
We need to get some more runs on the scoreboard. We can see
improvements in certain areas. The players are giving us, the new
management team, their full support and the players are responding
very well. They have been showing a lot of commitment and effort and
we really cannot fault them. In the recent past, we just were not
getting the results and sometimes the production we wanted in the run
department, buy we also believe that with the continued disciplined
approach with the batting, it will come."
Curtly Ambrose - Veteran West Indian Fast Bowler and `Man of the
Match':
"We knew that we did not have as many runs as we would have liked. It
should always be very difficult to defend 98 runs at Test level or any
kind of cricket and it was here too. We came out this morning,
knowing within ourselves that if we get a good start, get a couple of
early wickets, we could put pressure on the Zimbabweans and then
anything could happen. In the end, we prevailed.
I have had some good success over the years at the Queens Park Oval.
It is one of my favorite grounds, really. I have normally done well
here. It was a uphill struggle. When Franklyn Rose came in and got
four wickets, that turned the game. We were then able to capitalize
and come out winners. Winning by 35 runs was much too close for
comfort, actually. They showed that they have some fight in them and
that if they have the right discipline, then they could give us a run
for our money. We have not been scoring much runs lately, and we have
to go back to the drawing board and to find a way to scoring more
runs.
What happened at the end here will not happen every day. The bowlers
especially hope that we can get more runs in Jamaica. Lots of people
think that at 36 and 37, that both Courtney Walsh and myself are way
past it. I do not think so. We may not be bowling as quickly as we
used to, but we are very experienced, and I believe that we still have
very much cricket left in us and we do not want to leave West Indian
cricket without knowing that the youngsters can carry on the job. We
want to make sure that when we leave, they would be fully ready. I do
not know when I will stop playing.
If I can maintain my health and my form, and continue to help West
Indies win matches, then I will go on for a while. I cannot say when I
will leave. I will take it game by game."
Zimbabwe's captain - Andy Flower:
"I am very disappointed at this result. That's the way it goes
sometimes. We knew when we won the toss and fielded first that we
were leaving ourselves open to batting last on a wearing pitch, a
pitch that was going to keep somewhat low. I thought that the West
Indian fast bowlers bowled superbly. They did not give the batsmen
anything to score from and built pressure that way. The variation of
the pitch caught people in front of the stumps and occasionally went
under the bat. But we probably got a bit too defensive and we should
have tried to reverse the pressure somewhat.
We should have gotten that 99 runs though, no doubt of that. We won
most of the first four days and then capitulated on the last. We have
got to be stronger than that. We must be better than that under
pressure. We have heard that the pitch at Sabina Park in Jamaica helps
the faster bowlers even more but I reckon that we can compete with
these guys.
We should have won this one. We now have to put this result behind us
and most importantly, learn from it. We certainly can take wickets
against these guys and if we show a bit of guts, then we can make big
runs against these guys. I would have loved to have taken the winner's
trophy from here, but there are lots of lessons you learn when you are
playing Test cricket or even One Day Internationals, when you are
playing against quality opposition. Hopefully the guys will take
lessons away from this game for the next."
West Indies' captain - Jimmy Adams:
"I am very happy indeed to win this game. I am particularly happy for
the effort put in by the guys to win the game. Sometimes, we put in
the effort and do not always get the results. This time, the result
paralleled the effort and we are all very delighted. Sometimes when
you are facing the situation which we were facing this morning,
sometimes it draws the best out of players. This was one of those
times.
Brian Lara has always been a great influence and will always be. His
presence in the dressing room was important and very welcomed. We need
to start putting more runs on the score board, but I am confident that
we have the players to do it and I am confident that the runs will be
coming. It is too early to get into that 2nd Test match now. Right
now, we are on 'Cloud 9', so we need a couple of hours to come down a
little bit. I have not even thought that far. In the next few days, we
will go over this game very objectively, analyze it well, and see what
we come up with, but it is a bit too early to get into that. The four
fast bowlers bowled really well.
With all respects to Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh, I cannot have
enough praise for Reon King and Franklyn Rose. In the end, they
maintained the same amount of pressure that the two old guys did, and
I think that it is a wonderful sign for the future. I think that the
team is doing very well under the circumstances. We have not been
together that long, but I think that everyone is learning fast and
everyone is committed to improving in every area. Most of that
improvement is teamwork.
Once every player buys into the putting in the effort, then we cannot
ask any more. Definitely, we are very positive. The bottom line is
that we always want to win, irrespective of what team or what
management structure or what captain we have, we want to win. I went
to a specialist this morning and the knee structure is intact. It will
be sore, but it is sound. Barring anything unfortunate, the specialist
was very confident that everything will be okay. Winning always eases
the pain (laugh)."
Dr. Rudi Webster - Newly appointed sports psychologist/performance
enhancer of the West Indies cricket team:
"It was a fabulous victory, almost as good as the Barbados victory
last year against Australia. Last night, the chaps were a little bit
down, but we said to them that we had done this several times before,
and we then went through the history of the times when we had come
back and won. By the end of the meeting, they genuinely started to
believe in themselves. Somehow, the feeling was there.
There was no real rational reason for it, but we felt as though we
were going to win. This team has improved in a lot of ways. Of course
they did not bat as well as they should have, but at least they have
been patient. What we have been preaching to them, particularly Roger
Harper, at the camp, was that patience, persistence and sticking to
the basics were important to get the best out of the camp and the
players.
Most teams probably would have given in on this last day. We had a
full commitment from the players. All of the players suggested that
whatever we had on the score board, was enough. When you heard that
from Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh and then you heard Franklyn Rose
exclaim 'We did this against India last year, so we can do it again,'
and even Reon King, who is so very "quiet", put up his hand and said,
simply, 'We are going to beat these people', you had the feeling that
something would happen.
The four fast bowlers were fantastic. They backed up their word. I
was very proud of "Kingy", "Rosey", "Amby" and "Walshy". Whereas in
the first innings, when the two vintage bowlers had done so well, the
two younger ones let themselves and the team down, the second innings
was different. On the final day, Rose and King probably bowled better
than the two front line bowlers. Let us look at the entire picture.
The team spirit is fantastic.
We have a highly motivated team. One might say that the ability might
not be as it was perhaps ten years ago, but I believe that if we can
marshal what ability we have and really have the players working at
optimum, then we can give a great account of ourselves. In New
Zealand, they played well below their potential. Overall, the West
Indies have been playing well below what they are capable of. We may
not have brilliant players in our batting line-up, but if we can get
each one of those guys to play and bat near to his potential, give us
a regular half century at least, then I think that we will be very
competitive.
However, we are not deluding ourselves with this win. We know that at
the end of every contest, there is another one starting, and everyone
has to start from that point again. We now have to prepare all over
again for the 2nd Test."
Courtney Walsh - Veteran West Indian fast bowler:
"It is just good to get a Test match win under our belts. I think it
was a great way to welcome Curtly back into the team. I had not
played with him for a while, so it was nice for him to come in and to
start winning again. I am a bit disappointed that he got so many
wickets instead of me, but, on a serious note, it was great to see him
back.
Yes, we, the old veterans held our own well. Even more pleasing was
that young Franklyn Rose and Reon King came through. In New Zealand,
"Kingy" bowled magnificently. He bowled just as well here, even though
the wickets did not show for his tremendous efforts. I think that it
shows well for the future to see that our young fast bowlers are still
so committed to the effort. Rose did not bowl so well in New Zealand,
but he has come back well. I am happy that we are still around while
these guys are coming through. We know now that we have enough guys
to take our places. We definitely will have better things for the
future.
It was really good for the team to win this game. With Brian (Lara)
not around, our best batsman, many people were suggesting that we
would not do well. Obviously, we have not been scoring enough runs
recently, but to win a Test match without Brian is a great feeling.
Whenever he comes back, he will add a bit more depth to our batting.
This win will give the youngsters some confidence, I am sure. Young
Wavell Hinds have done well under pressure here and did not do too
badly.
We really have to support the youngsters and given the opportunity,
with some competition for places, our batting will come and dominate
as it used to. It was not a plan, but it would be a "dream come
through" for me to break that record in Jamaica. I wanted to get some
more wickets here so that it would not be so difficult in Jamaica. I
now have to work a lot harder to get that record. It would be
wonderful to achieve that in front of my home crowd and supporters.
I hope that Sabina Park will be full and that I can achieve the record
there. We went to bed last night with the exact feeling that we can
and will win the game. Once we did the basics right, those 99 that
Zimbabwe needed would always have been difficult. I actually told the
coach that if Zimbabwe are to get this total, then they will have to
bat and bat like hell.
The runs were already on the score board, so all we had to do was work
and work hard, and we should win. We did not know much of the
Zimbabweans in the 1st innings, but we learned quickly in the 2nd to
get stuck into them. We discussed it at length and it worked. We
talked to each other in the field of play and we are all working
together.
Being the senior guy, I tend to look out for most of the signs where I
can help the youngsters. Everyone is listening and trying to do the
right thing. The youngsters are very willing to try something. The
fitness was not a problem. I had a bit of flu in the camp, so I had to
really work hard, with lots of liquids, to get through the hot
afternoon.
It was really good for us to have those rain breaks so that I could
recover somewhat. It seems that we play better under pressure, but to
be honest, we do not want it. We would prefer that we have no
pressure but still win. We, the bowlers, would really like to see
some more runs on the board, so that the bowlers do not have to work
so damned hard. The team was totally committed.
It was really a moral booster for us, after New Zealand. The crowds'
support, on every day, was fantastic. The crowds did not have to come
out to support us. We had not done so well in New Zealand and no
Trinidadian was playing here, but they came and supported anyway,
about 4000 per day. We are very grateful for the help of the crowds."
These West Indian players did well. They need all of the support that
they can get. Let us give it to them, please.