With everyone focused on the Ashes, it is easy to miss that the Blackcaps have demolished a hapless and demoralised Windies outfit by an innings and 73 runs in the second Test at the Basin Reserve in Wellington.
But the cricketing world has been too caught up in the Ashes to notice that for the second Test in a row, New Zealand have run through a Windies batting line-up showing worse form and technique than the Australians in England earlier in the year.
Nobody expected much to come out of a three-Test series played at grounds which would be a fraction bigger than you’re local cricket club.
Granted, Dunedin and Hamilton aren’t really needing an MCG-style arena (Wellington already has Westpac Stadium), but what is playing out on these small grounds is big cricketing news.
The West Indies are in a lot of trouble. Still reeling from a player divide with the board, as well as a lack of interest from the general public as locals are bombarded with the NBA and EPL, has left West Indian cricket in a desperate state.
Shiv Chanderpaul, the one singular mainstay in the maroon cap, is now 39 and does not have a lot of cricket left in him.
Chris Gayle is unable to maintain a spot or form in the side.
Kieron Pollard is only good for limited overs cricket as is Dwayne Bravo.
Throw in a rag-tag bunch which is rotated endlessly and you have a team out of form, out of luck, and just flat-out sad.
The Windies played two Tests and three ODIs in India before travelling to NZ. Their last ODI was on the 27th of November, the first Test was on December 3.
Only 4 of the 11 backed up from that match, including captain Darren Sammy who only bowled three overs.
More worrying is that the Windies bowling stats. in the last three Tests they have bowled 406.2 overs with 183 of those being spin, that’s 45% of the time the Windies are bowling spin.
What’s more worrying?
Those 183 overs were shared between two bowlers. In the space of three weeks, with one Test to go, two spinners have had to carry at times an insipid pace attack, its only a matter of time before one of them goes down.
And this is not the first time the Windies have been found over-relying on spin bowling.
Anyone remember Sulieman Benn’s 80 overs in a match in Adelaide in 2009?
Their current pace attack consists of Tino Best, Shannon Gabriel and Darren Sammy. Doesn’t exactly strike the same fear Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh were able to.
In the current series the New Zealand commentators, featuring Ian Bishop (a Windies great), have laboured over poor bowling from Shannon Gabriel and whether it be his seam position or line and length.
No surprise he failed to take a wicket in Dunedin.
Darren Sammy has trundled in and seen his well-thought out plans been dispatched to every edge of the ground by Ross Taylor and co.
Even Trent Boult, the Kiwis No.11, took a liking to his bowling.
Tino Best however, the tight shirt wearing, muscle rippling, angry fast bowler has been able to really trouble the Blackcaps, but even then its only been in short bursts, nothing Mitch Johnson like.
We then come to the batting, an order which in its four batting attempts has failed three out of four occasions, it took a well-crafted Darren Bravo double century to see them post a respectable score.
Opener Kieron Powell has scores of 7,14, 21 and 36. Marlon Samuels has 14, 23, 60 and 12 and keeper Dinesh Ramdin going 12, 24, 12 and 19. It’s a tale of woe which speaks volumes of how much trouble Windies cricket is in.
Today’s batting collapse was like watching my Year 5 primary school cricket team go at it. In the space of 22 overs, WI went 7/76, thats not even acceptable in T20s. Add an extra 55 overs to the equation and you get 17/251.
West Indian cricket is in a lot of trouble, and if nothing is done about it whether it come internally or externally, then we’re going to lose what was once a superpower of world cricket.
richard
Guest
As a long suffering NZ cricket fan,it's great to finally have a victory after squandering the advantage in the first test.Great bowling by Trent Boult,and of course,the century by Ross Taylor. Don't know what you can read into the result,as the Windies are pretty dire atm.
Cantab
Guest
Great win for the blackcaps, great that Taylor is stepping up, looks like he will surpass all the records held by Crowe, Fleming and Reid by career end. Windies in big trouble, I expect Bangladesh to surpass them within 5 years, Bravo seems to be there only player with a bright future ahead.
Timmuh
Roar Guru
In terms of time, probably further away than they deserve. In terms of standard, its really diffiult to say. Having no five day experience, except Joyce, would count against them but they culd be competitive at home agaisnt Zimbabwe or Bangladesh. Maybe ahead of one of them inside a couple of years. They have set up a first class competition in the last couple of years, and if they could get the likes of Rankin and Morgan back from England would probably not be a pushover from day one even for the likes of the West Indies. And Afghanistan aren't far behind them, but obviously have trouble hosting matches or putting together a suitable domestic structure. Ireland's limited overs pedigree is obviously stronger, having had some very good world cup wins means they are the first in everyone's minds. This is why there needs to be a better sstem in place for the leading Associates to get first class games against professionals. If they could regularly compete with county, state, provicinal sides over four days, they could easily push the lower ranked Test nations. But they need the experience of multi-day cricket. The intercontintal cup is good for that, but the next step to playing series against forst class professionals (eg. if the Shield winners were to tour Ireland every Aus winter) hat would be a better guide and a stepping stone to Test status.
Johnno
Guest
Ireland today have just won the ICC 2nd Tier 1st class championship longer format, beating Afghanistan in the final, http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2013/12/14/ireland-win-second-tier-cricket-title-no3
gurudoright
Guest
Just a question, how far off are Ireland from test status in terms of time and playing standard. Obviously I realise that they would struggle against the top test playing nations, but what about Bangladesh and Zimbabwe?
Johnno
Guest
west indies test-cricket team a big worry. ODI and T20 they will be fine. But I reckon they will be extinct from test cricket by 2030, 20 years if not 2025. It's going no where there 1st-class cricket program. Canada and Ireland have much better chance to be long term test cricket countries. Caribeean is poor, test cricket is an expensive sport to get good at, and stay good at. Sheffield sheild for 1 makes no money, huge revenue costs, the old 1st class scene is the west indies is struggling big time. And the new generation there have no love for test cricket, it's not in demand. NZ I worry about too, and sri lanka. NZ should get 2 teams in the Big bash, Auckland and Wellington. The T20 revenue can finance the 1st class scene more. NZ fans don't have a big love of test cricket anymore, but if they get good again they might stick with it, and they have more money than the caribean NZ, better off. Good for Australia if NZ gets good at test cricket again, doing okay now, but need to build more depth. Hope the black caps can be good like they were 1980-2000, 20 years of good times for NZ cricket. But west indies cricket at test level, a sad decline that's only gonna get worse I predict.
Brian
Guest
Unfortunately cricket is setup so you only care for yourself. The future for the West Indies is basically in T20 where players can earn money playing overseas which will keep their national team competitive.
Timmuh
Roar Guru
An other match that was going on at the same time was the Intercontinental Cup final. Ireland took their fourth Cup, beating defending champions Afghanistan by 122 runs after being bowled out for 187 and getting just a five run lead in the first innings. John Mooney got ten wickets for the victors, five in each innings, with the experienced Ed Joyce and Niall O'Brien posting good second innings scores to build a tough target. For Afghanistan, Rahmat Shah was the star in the fourth innings. He ran out of partners, with 86* and hisfirst class average is now over 100 from just four games, but all those games have been against other second tier nations.
nik
Guest
As good as it is to see the Caps finally win one (they should won in Dunedin as well and can only blame themselves that they didn't) very sad what the Windies has become and seeing them beaten like this in three days. Hope they can find something in Hamilton. Boult's performance was all class. Anyone would be happy with taking 10 for 80 plus that catch.