By Neto Baptiste
Newly appointed vice captain of the senior West Indies men’s team, Alzarri Joseph, believes that pitches utilised in the recently held Super 50 were not conducive to fast bowling.
Speaking on the Good Morning Jojo sports show, Joseph who led the Leeward Islands Hurricanes for the first time when he was appointed captain in October, said teams notably packed their rosters with a number of spinners in anticipation that pitches would have been more conducive to that type of bowling.
“To be 100 percent honest, I think they’re not conducive to fast bowling at all. If you look at the teams [Super 50], some of them only played one [fast bowler] because they know after the first three overs it’s going to be spin right down to 50 so that does not help fast bowling in the West Indies at all, it doesn’t develop any fast bowlers and that’s probably why we haven’t been developing any fast bowlers for a long time. Most teams are only playing one or two fast bowlers because the pitches are going to spin throughout the day,” he said.
Joseph finished eighth in the bowling rankings with 13 wickets in eight matches to help lead Hurricanes to the Super 50 final against Trinidad and Tobago Red Force.
The top seven bowlers in this year’s’ Super 50 were spinners with veteran Sunil Narine of Trinidad & Tobago and Hurricanes’ Hayden Walsh Jr, both claiming 20 wickets. T&T’s Yannic Cariah was third with 18 wickets. Hurricanes’ Daniel Doram (16), Barbados’ Roston Chase (16), Guyana’s Gudakesh (14) and Kevin Sinclair (14) rounds off the top seven.
Joseph is not daunted by this fact however, stating that his mindset is to just push through and get the job done.
“I just take things day by day so I will go and focus on what I have to do for the day so if I don’t get any wickets or am not bowling well then I don’t necessarily think that I am the spearhead so I have to force and try to do things because that is going to make things worst but for me it’s just about staying focused, staying in the moment so I wouldn’t really say it puts any pressure on me,” he said.
The Antiguan has been named vice captain of the senior men’s team for the pending CG United One-Day International (ODI) Series against England, slated to commence on December 3.
The CG United ODI Series, consisting of three matches, will bowl off with two ODIs at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua on December 3 and December 6. The third and final ODI will be held at Kensington Oval, Barbados, on December 9.
