Tony Becca

ONCE UPON a time, and long before the Windies were the best in the world, even in those days when there were two caps and two blazers, the navy blue when playing at home and the maroon when playing away, a West Indies Test player was respected and admired.

In fact, in those days, and not so long ago at that, a West Indies player, even an average player, was looked upon like a god.

Today, that is not so. The West Indies players who today are looked upon as special people are few and far between.

In this West Indies team, the one that played in England recently and the one that it is still going on, played in the ICC World Twenty20 championship, the only players that really have the respect the fans are probably Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Chris Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan.

Imposters

As far as the majority of fans are concerned, the others, almost all of them - and but for their mothers and fathers, their uncles and aunts, their brothers and sisters, and probably even the selectors, some of whom will tell you that they select them because they cannot do any better - are nothing but impostors.

And looking at the performances of the players, the fans have good reason for believing so. As talented as some of the players may be, the reason is simply that, but for a flash here and there, they have failed to perform with the bat, with the ball and in the field.

Looking at the performances before they got into the team, some of them should never have enjoyed the distinction of representing the West Indies. Looking at the performances of most of them while representing the West Indies, many of them should have stopped enjoying that honour long ago. And except if there is a turn around in their performances, a real turn around at that, many of them, despite the poor state of West Indies cricket, should never represent the West Indies again.

Not fulfilling expectations

Dwayne Smith - File

Batsmen like Marlon Samuels, Devon Smith and Daren Ganga got into the West Indies easily and without any great performance and but for an innings here and there, they have never lived up to what their talent promised and to what was expected of them and especially so by the selectors.

The same goes for bowlers like Pedro Collins, Dwight Washington Fidel Edwards and also to one like Ravi Rampaul.

There is one player, however, who has disappointed more than all, not as a bowler nor as a fielder, but as a batsman, and he should be told in no uncertain manner that it is now or never again.

After getting into the Test team at age 21 with only one first-class century behind his name, Dwayne Smith walked into his first Test match, blasted a century against South Africa, and based on his performance for Barbados and for the West Indies, he has been living off that performance in the shadow of Table Mountain in Cape Town ever since.

Performance lacking

Smith may not believe so, and neither, probably, will the selectors, but his performance as a batsman - 10 Test matches, 320 runs with one century, not one 50 and an average of 24.61; 71 one-day matches, 791 runs with a top score of 68, only two 50s and an average of 14.92; five Twenty20 matches, 49 runs with a top score of 29 and an average of 9.80, and 55 first-class figures, 2,306 runs, with a top score of 114 and an average of 26.81 - is simply not good enough for a West Indies player.

An he is brilliant as a fielder, with seven wickets at an average of 49.14 in Test matches, with 49 wickets at average of 37.00 and an economy rate of 4.80 in one-day cricket and with five wickets at an average of 21.60 and an economy rate of 8.10 in Twenty20s, his bowling is hardly any better.

West Indies cricket is experiencing some rough times they may be as talented, the players of today, most of them, are not as good as those of yesterday. Based on their performances, were they playing yesterday they would have had to perform much better to get into the team.

They need to perform much better than they are doing and that is what the West Indies selectors must tell the underperformers - an there are a lot of them around these days, none more so than Dwayne Smith.