Cricket: Caribbean laments fall of its heroes

THE WEST INDIES press lambasted their beleaguered cricket team the day after South Africa formalised a 5-0 series sweep with a 351-run trouncing at Centurion on Monday.

"Whitewash!!!" screamed the banner headline on the back page of the Daily Observer of Jamaica. "Whitelash" cried the Daily Nation of Barbados on its front page yesterday, despite the presence of a general election the next day. The Barbados Advocate also preferred the Brian Lara's team's demise to coverage of the election. "SA bury West Indies" and "Worst drubbing in 70 years" were emblazoned across its front page. Its editorial carried the headline "Utter disgrace" and "Time to clean the stables" and was strong in content. "The fault does not lie with [captain] Brian Lara alone... It takes more than the wrong-headedness of this prima donna to sink West Indies to their first ever 0-5 whitewash, a worse defeat than when we first entered the Test arena."

"Too many players went to South Africa with a bad attitude," the editorial stated, referring to the players' strike in November which threatened the tour. "Maximum productivity is always unlikely in an atmosphere of flagrant hostility between employee and employer."

In Trinidad, the effect was similar. "Disunity bowled us out" contended the Daily Express on its front page, while the Guardian was more sympathetic with "Windies whitewashed" on the back. The Guardian, though, carried some depressing sentiments from David Rudder, the composer and performer of the now famous West Indies cricket anthem "Rally Round The West Indies". Rudder, a fervent cricket fan, expressed fear for the future of the region's team in a column titled "What Now, West Indies?"

"I remember [Clive] Lloyd's team with Viv Richards getting the same kind of treatment as Lara's team after losing to the Australians 5-1 in 1975- 76," said Rudder. "After that series, the West Indian team said `never again', and we dominated cricket for the next 20 years. What is scary about now is that the substance of the Caribbean man is so diminished. I don't know if these youngsters have ever said `never again'."

The Express editorial also found little hope for the future. "What, then, can be done to prevent an ODI encore?" it asked, under the headline "Between rock bottom and a harder place". Its answer: "Short of finding a Viagra- like pill that will restore lost prowess overnight, the answer, sadly, is nothing.

"And waiting for them is not some healing retreat high up in the Blue Mountains or on the beach at Blanchisseuse but four more taxing Tests and seven onerous ODIs against Mark Taylor's world champions. It is enough to tempt stronger men than captain Lara to retire to the mountain top."