Sarwan should have been the obvious choice

Well with the current West Indies team facing an acute crisis for talent in terms of both players in form and without it, maintaining the current players who are at least with good class if not in form is quintessential for the West Indies team. The current West Indies team has fellow players like Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderapaul and Dwayne Bravo who can save some face for their team with decent if not extraordinary batting performances. If not for Brian Lara - who retired after the world cup in 2007, none of the players in the current West Indian team have been given the axe.

Now, with the inclusion of Ramnaresh Sarwan, another partial boost to their batting line up can be thought of provided Sarwan is well inform and is included in the playing XI. If not for Nikita Miller and Carlton Baugh, some of the remaining West Indian players seem to be the same with others seeming not so promising like Andre Rusell, Ravi Rampaul and Kemar Roach. None of these players' names have been ever heard in international cricket news be it for the good reasons or for the bad. West Indies has big hitting batsmen like Gayle, Sarwan, Chanderapaul and Kieron Pollard off late.

With the schedule of the world cup being so liberal, it would come as no surprise that West Indies will surely make it to the quarter finals even if they manage wins against Bangladesh, Ireland and Netherlands considering their losses against India, South Africa and England. Coming to Sarwan's case, Sarwan should be the obvious choice rather than tossing a coin before deciding his inclusion or omission from the squad. If Ramnaresh Sarwan's name has to be dropped, then the West Indies team will have to fly to the subcontinent with only 14 players who can officially represent their team.

The 15^th member will only be filling the vacancy left over by Sarwan.One can sense the lack of real life thoughts with the West Indies cricket board naming Darren Sammy as the captain of the world cup touring squad but, I guess should be a positive move which on one hand gives Chris Gayle an opportunity to concentrate on his batting. WICB is believed to have learned their lessons when Brian Lara was made the captain which in turn affected his batting to a little extent though not as much as Sachin Tendulkar. However, in case by chance West Indies manage to make a mark in the quarter finals like they did in 1996, that would be relished for their fans for a long period.

Four more days left for RSA to take an unassailable lead

Well none of you readers need to be told specially that South Africa have begun their campaign in their second test against the West Indies Basseterre successfully after Graeme Smith scored a hundred for, all of you guys are aware of the one and the only site that is solely dedicated to the game of cricket - cricinfo. But, some things based on my point of view needs to be given a consideration atleast in the scope of this blog. Needless to be said, the South African captain Graeme Smith scored 132 on the first day's play against the West Indies which was more than one third of the total score of 296 on the board.

This has to be considered as their path to an unbeatable lead in the series with them already 1-0 up in the series after they won the first test in Antigua last week by 163 runs after they were reduced to 352 in their first innings. But, how should and how does that matter when victory is already granted rather than a possibility? A score of even 200 is enough to see the West Indies home and that too against South Africa. A score of 200 by South Africa would mean that the West Indies will collapse for a score may be just above 100 on the board.

People would have gone sick of me writing the West Indies' down to earth performance on the field, with every match well in front of them. It is more than a possibility that the West Indies will lose to any opposition they face in today's cricket. One need not think twice before having their bet on Bangladesh when they play the West Indies. In case the West Indies are hosting Bangladesh, still the chances of a West Indies win is slightly above 50%. It is fascinating to see Graeme Smith still going in for a full fledged South African team to tackle the West Indies.

On the other hand, the West Indies are found to rest some of their key players like Ramnaresh Sarwan for reasons best known to the West Indies Cricket Board selection panel. South Africa can afford to declare their first innings now itself which can give the cricket lovers a fantastic match. Likewise, South Africa are the team which is making matches involving the West Indies more interesting when they come close to losing the game and end up winning the same. Wow! How poetic it is! By the way, Smith is expected to experiment with his team in matches against West Indies which can prove worth.

Ireland betters the West Indies

Needless to be said, it is not always the wins and losses that count in the game of cricket which was more so in the case of the match between the West Indies and Ireland. Though the West Indies won the match against Ireland by 6 wickets with the man of the match being awarded to the West Indian batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan, it was the Ireland team that took home much of the honors of the game. First of all, it was Ireland who were touring the Caribbean and do not enjoy the home team advantage like the West Indies team.

And then, the West Indies team needed the services of senior batsman - Sarwan to have a win. The West Indian batsmen though not losing wickets at regular intervals and by the end of the match not losing more than 4 wickets which is a decent approach, they had no reason to take the game until the penultimate over of the match when they scored the winning runs in the 44^th over. I think that the West Indies must be reminded that they are in an era where targets more than 300 are chased down with little effort and they must take the example of India who are found doing it repeatedly.

This was once again a needless encounter after the West Indies played the Canadian team a couple of days back. The Irish batsmen played their full quota of 50 overs and also there were two batsmen in Paul Stirling and Kevin O Brien who notched up half centuries for Ireland. They also crossed the 200 run mark unlike Canada who were all out for just 108. But, it is neither Canada's not Ireland's fault. It was interesting to see the Irish captain William Poterfield going in for 7 bowlers out of whom none of them bowled their complete quota of 10 overs.

Likewise, the West Indies captain Darren Sammy bought in just 5 overs to bowl the Irish batsmen out not before they played their complete quota of 50 overs a side. The West Indies team lost two of their in form batsmen namely Shivanarine Chanderapaul and Andre Fletcher with just one run on the board which was a sort of triumph for the Ireland team. One has to recall the fact that it does not make someone jump in joy whenever West Indies beats Ireland but, when it happens the other way round, it definitely makes news headlines. This was the chance for the young legs of the WI team to showcase thei talent and may be they were doing exactly that.