Blot on the series

The most damning comment as the West Indies started their second innings in the final Test in the gloom of Monday afternoon came through the television stump microphone from an unidentified voice in the Zimbabwean slips.

Hey, let's go, these boys really know how to lose, it said.

It was one of those gibes that are typical of international cricket these days and was utterly incongruous coming from someone on a team that had been trounced by an innings in the first Test only a week earlier and couldn't score even 99 to win in the previous series between the teams last year.

Yet it was not entirely misplaced. It came after two days in which the West Indies had undone all the admirable advances made on the tour with cricket well below Test standard.

The West Indies were at the start of an innings attempting to save a match that, after two days, they held firmly in their grasp. They led by 216 on first innings and had already removed one of the openers for 27.

What happened next was a repetition of the sudden lapses into mediocrity that have caused so much distress of late.

Zimbabwe, without their finest batsman, Andy Flower, and another of considerable experience, Stuart Carlisle, piled up the highest total they have ever made in nearly ten years of Test cricket, 563 for nine declared.

Hamilton Masakadza, a 17-year-old schoolboy on debut, with real promise but limitations in technique and experience, helped himself to an historic hundred. Craig Wishart (Test average 16) would have got one too but he ran himself out and so might Andy Blignaut (highest Test score 35) except for a worthless stroke at 92.

To see Reon King and Marlon Black relieve the pressure almost every time they came on with an over of dross was disturbing enough. To witness King's efforts in the field and Courtney Browne's behind the stumps were simply embarrassing at this level of the game.

The cancer soon spread, as it invariably does, and the entire effort was affected.

It was nothing new. The West Indies would probably not have lost, even without the assistance of the weather, but to have allowed things to have reached such a sorry pass rekindled some unsettling memories.

Christ Church, December 1999, when a first day 282 for one was transformed in defeat by New Zealand by nine wickets, immediately comes to mind.

So does Lord's last year when the euphoria of an innings victory in the first Test and a first innings lead of 133 were undermined by the after-tea collapse on the second day to 54 all out against England.

Another is Kensington in April against South Africa when a possible defeat sprung up from nowhere in the last session of the match and led to demeaning, time-wasting tactics to avoid it.

Such aberrations appeared to have been expunged in Zimbabwe, admittedly against moderate opposition. A young team responded to a potentially crippling succession of injuries with genuine spirit.

Even when they found themselves 47 for five against India in the triangular One-Day series, they rallied to 169 for seven instead of capitulating as had been the habit.

Given little chance in the triangular final against an Indian team that had comfortably won all four qualifying matches, they disregarded the supposed disadvantage of losing the toss and batting first in the early morning to take the Coca-Cola Cup.

Their victory was the first in five multi-team tournaments in the past two years. It was achieved through bold, confident tactics not seen for some time from those in the maroon uniforms.

In the first Test, they punished Zimbabwe's carelessness with refreshing efficiency. A record opening partnership between Dion Ebrahim and Alistair Campbell held them up in the second innings, but they kept their focus and quickly completed the job once it was broken with incisive bowling and outstanding catching.

Over the first two days of the second Test, the same intensity prevailed. Why it should have so quickly disintegrated is a matter for the urgent attention of captain Carl Hooper and coach Roger Harper.

They must know that every one of the XI has to be at or near his best at all times for this is not a team yet blessed with a majority of great players. Those who don't pull their weight, in whatever they do, and even if they are only a couple, drag the others down with them. There should be no place for them.

It was a tour that was the making of Chris Gayle as the high-class batsman he has seemed capable of being since he was a teenager. He was unrecognisable as the flashy strokeplayer who kept South Africa's slips and gully on their toes in the previous series in the Caribbean.

That did not happen by chance. It was the result of diligent work and discipline. He got closer to the ball and was prepared to let potential danger pass outside off-stump.

It did not diminish the power of his clean-hitting or his appetite for big scores. Muralitharan and turning pitches will pose different problems on his next learning experience in Sri Lanka but he has shown the ability to adapt, the hallmark of all the best players.

Ramnaresh Sarwan batted with flair and confidence, as did Marlon Samuels, but Sarwan ran himself out again in sight of a hundred, a figure both young batsmen are yet to attain in West Indies colours. They won't assert themselves as they are capable of doing until they make that breakthrough.

As Gayle developed as a batsman, so did Colin Stuart as the best fast bowler by far. He might not have got his chance but for the injuries that sent Merv Dillon and Cameron Cuffy home early, but he generated real pace from his strong action, bowled wicket to wicket, was seldom short and gave of his all every time, all the time.

It is an example Ridley Jacobs has set since he finally made it into the team nearly three years ago.

The effect of his absence as a player was conspicuous in the last Test, especially since the selectors dilly-dallying over sending Browne out earlier, denied the replacement keeper a chance of any match practice.