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West Indies arrived in Australia firmly lodged in eighth place by the Test Cricket Ratings Service with 956 rating points.� That placed the tourists only ahead of Zimbabwe and Bangladesh in the rankings.�
The unfortunate cold hard fact is that this era of West Indian cricket is the worst in their proud history.� The team that arrived in Australia was around 40 rating points worse than at any other era in their history.
By comparison, West Indies faced an Australian team who had held the highest rating by any nation in history before losing in England mid year.� The Australians easily held first position in the rankings with 1232 rating points - a full 276 points above West Indies.� As such, the series result should never have been in doubt, with West Indies expected at best to achieve one draw in the three Tests.
Australia went on to defeat West Indies by 379 runs in Brisbane, by nine wickets in Hobart and by seven wickets in Adelaide.� However, a transformation occurred after the first Test.� The West Indian team that played the second and third Tests was suddenly far more competitive than in the first Test.�
The change was not simply the inclusion of Dwayne Bravo, who was inexplicably left out of the Brisbane Test.� The West Indian team took the battle to the Australians to a far higher extent than the hosts anticipated.� The size of Australia's victories in the final two Tests are not an adequate measure of how the tourists played.�
What West Indies lacked was the capacity to compete consistently.� At times, West Indies held their own against Australia, but they could not sustain that level of competitiveness over a number of days.
Bravo has announced himself as a player with great potential for the future of West Indian cricket.� However, West Indian cricket needs a few more Bravos to revive itself and again become competitive.� Sarwan and Samuels, for example, also need to stand up and use the talent they have displayed during past tours to Australia.
Brian Lara declared his rare talent at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 1993 when he reached 277 as his maiden Test century.� Lara's subsequent visits to Australia have been cursed by questionable umpiring decisions that the Caribbean press are only to happy point out.�
Even in this series, Lara fell victim to a dodgy leg before decision.� Umpires are only human and they do not have the recourse to endless slow motion replays and the Hawkeye technology.� However, Lara would appear to have enough evidence from his Australian sojourns to issue a brief to a barrister to suggest an 'I wos Wobbed' case could be proven.
To Lara's credit, he has not made a big issue of the decisions he has received.� Further, at Adelaide in his final Test in Australia, Lara managed to score 226 runs.� The effort showed the sort of Herculean concentration that has taken Lara past 200 runs on a number of occasions; allowed him to twice set the world record for the highest Test score; and pass Allan Border to hold the world record for most Test runs scored.�
Finally, Lara remains one of the very few batsmen in the modern era of Australian dominance who has a Test batting average against Australia a few points higher than his career batting average.� That is a considerable achievement given most of his career has overlapped with Warne and McGrath.
The series victory has seen Australia's rating rise to 1240 points.� Australia retains first place in the rankings and has extended their lead over second placed England to 80 points.�
Unfortunately, the loss for West Indies has seen them plunge to another all time national record low point of 949 rating points.� West Indies now trail seventh placed New Zealand by 87 points, while retaining a more than comfortable lead over ninth placed Zimbabwe by rating 100 points.
Only time can reverse the West Indian's slide from 1980-1990 powerhouse to easy beat.� Australia would do well to observe, reflect and avoid the same mistakes.
�
The latest Test cricket ratings are: 1. Australia (1240); 2. England (1160); 3. South Africa (1126); 4. India (1083); 5. Pakistan (1059) ; 6. Sri Lanka (1054); 7. New Zealand (1036); 8. West Indies (949); 9. Zimbabwe (849); 10. Bangladesh (785).
