Let’s try a hypothetical. If you were playing the West Indies in Perth, would you rather face Michael Holding from the river end at the WACA with the Fremantle Doctor howling over his left shoulder, or would you prefer taking on Roston Chase lobbing up straight breaks?
Perhaps the question is rhetorical.
The West Indies have undergone quite some devolution since Roy Fredericks hooked Dennis Lillee into Hay Street on the way to a hundred before lunch, and Clive Lloyd’s most taxing decision was whether his bowlers needed four slips or five, or, indeed, any fielders at all in front of the wicket.
The Windies won the Test where Fredericks made that memorial ton by an innings and wouldn’t lose again at the WACA for 25 years. They lost the 1975-76 series against Australia 5-1 and set about harnessing a generation and a half of the fiercest bowlers to ever stalk the Earth.
Michael Holding took 6-21 in 1984 as Australia slumped to 76 in the first innings, on the same pitch where the West Indies had just made 416. The slip cordon would have been illegal in a white-ball game. His cohort included Joel Garner, Courtney Walsh and Malcolm Marshall. Larry Gomes and Viv Richards bowled one over each, either to let the quicks change ends, or they fancied getting Rodney Hogg out.
West Indies great Michael Holding.Credit:Getty
Ambrose, Walsh, Marshall and Patrick Patterson would make survival next to impossible in 1988 on a pitch quick silver and cracking, although the margin was just 169 runs with Australia batting one short on the back of Merv Hughes’ hat-trick spread over three overs and two innings. I’ll take a bit of credit for the hat-trick, for without me being in hospital getting my jaw wired back together Swervin Mervin would not have taken the first over or had the breeze.
Between 1975 and 2000 the West Indies won three times by an innings and once by 10 wickets against Australia.
Australia had turned the tables by 2000, winning by an innings, and followed that up in 2009 by securing victory in a 35-run nail-biter after the Windies’ spinners knocked Australia over for 150 in the second innings, Ricky Ponting batting at No.9.
Playing the West Indies in those decades was not pleasant. The cricket was brutal. Four genuinely fast bowlers all day, every day. If you were lucky Viv or Larry drifted a few down.
It didn’t matter if the pitch was deceased and spinning around corners, the theory went that you pick the best bowlers available no matter what the conditions. Spin was a far option when there is a queue to take the new ball.
A batsman may get a chance to cover drive once or twice an hour, when the bowler missed his yorker.
There was no minimum number of overs a day in those days; the game was played to the clock, mostly 11am-6pm. Overtime these days can be up to 30 minutes, and usually is. In the days before the internet, a few minutes past 6 was all the extra you did to finish an over. Channel 9 had to go to the news right on the mark.
With four fast bowlers taking long run-ups, the Windies might get through 70 overs. Their response to over minimums was to make the games conclude days earlier.
There was no limit on bouncers either, save for the generic “intimidatory bowling” regulations, which never seemed to be enforced. If you could not play off the back foot then your career was limited. If you played the hook shot, your career was limited. If you didn’t wear heavily padded gloves, your career was limited. If you lacked absolute courage, your career was limited. A batsman may get a chance to cover drive once or twice an hour, when the bowler missed his yorker.
Visions of Steve Waugh taking on Curtly Ambrose on a cabbage patch at the Queens Park Oval epitomised the ball v bat contests toward the end of that era. This was not cricket as you see it now, and it was certainly not the cricket served up by this West Indies team.
Richie Richardson holds Curtly Ambrose back from Steve Waugh in 1995.Credit:AP
The new Perth ground has drop-in pitches bathed in the same Harvey River clay as the WACA. During the T20 World Cup it was fast; a great surface for exciting cricket. This Test pitch is slow by Perth standards and considerably slower than the WACA last century, and the visitors bowled slowly. The talk of Alzarri Joseph, Jayden Seales and Kemar Roach cranking the radar beyond 145km/h was not unrealistic, given their showing in Canberra during the PM’s XI game, yet there was not a snap, crackle or a pop on the first morning – more like soggy cornflakes.
The radar hovered in the mid-130s, there was little aimed at the body, and only a rare bouncer. No fire, no intensity, no leader of the pack taking the game up to the Australian batsmen, no punches thrown at the outset. It was more like covering up in the corner waiting for the body blows; a civility of line and length through the defensive corridor. A “leave” looked like a victory.
The field settings bellowed run-saving rather than wicket-taking, the slips taken out early, hence the nicks that did come were missed. The short leg made a perfunctory showing, and there was no sign of attacking Steve Smith or Marnus Labuschagne with leg gullies and short mid-wickets. They were free to defend the better deliveries and turn the strike over at will.
The Windies fast men do not lack skills, but the surely lack direction and intent.
The Windies had some pace to use – maybe not Holding and co, but some decent heat. They failed to
get out of second gear.
Sure they didn’t have a lot of luck outside of the David Warner drag on, but neither did they work hard enough or develop the intensity required to be competitive in Test cricket. Maybe they are playing with the white-ball mindset?
Back to that hypothetical. If you bat down the order against today’s West Indies, you aren’t getting a hit, but in the 1980s, you’ll definitely be needed at the crease, often sooner rather than later.
News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.
