OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday 5.15pm.
WEST Indies manager Clive Lloyd claimed injuries, illness and attitude problems have brought about the West Indies’ dismal showing in South Africa so far.
After seven matches on tour, the West Indies have yet to register a win, even in one-day games against invitation teams, and trail 2-0 against South Africa in the five-Test series.
Lloyd, who captained the West Indies during their most successful era in the 1970s and 1980s, said: “We seem to be stumbling from one disaster to another.”
He said the injuries to key players Jimmy Adams and Dinanath Ramnarine and the glandular fever which struck down opening batsman Philo Wallace had also been big blows.
“We are disappointed,” Lloyd said in an interview in Durban Tuesday, as his players prepared for matches he hoped would put the tour of back on track for the Caribbean team. “We have to try and rectify the situation.”
Lloyd said the disasters started with the threatened strike by players which delayed the start of the tour.
“We didn’t start right. We have had problems with injuries and illness and our batsmen have not shown the right sort of attitude,” he said, adding there were long-term problems in West Indian cricket.
“We really need to look at our situation in depth,” he said. “It is something the West Indian cricket board will have to look at.”
He said it was essential the team bounced back from a crushing 178-run defeat by South Africa in the second Test, which only ran to three days, in Port Elizabeth last Saturday.
They play a Natal XI in Chatsworth, outside Durban, in a one-day game on Wednesday and a four-day match against South Africa A in Pietermaritzburg starting Saturday. The third Test starts at Kingsmead, Durban, on December 26.
“Both the next two games are important, especially the four-day game where I expect our batsmen to prepare themselves for the Test match by playing long innings,” said Lloyd.
“We have to get ourselves into the right frame of mind for the third Test.”–AFP
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