da betobet： The West Indies have three matches to at least put a littlesilver lining on what has been an especially dark tour ofSri Lanka, collectively and for captain Carl Hooperspecifically
da luck： Tony Cozier14-Dec-2001The West Indies have three matches to at least put a littlesilver lining on what has been an especially dark tour ofSri Lanka, collectively and for captain Carl Hooperspecifically.They must beat both Sri Lanka tomorrow and Zimbabwe onSunday in Kandy in their remaining qualifying round matchesof the LG Abans triangular One-Day series and Sri Lankaagain in the final in a day-night match at the PremadasaStadium here on Wednesday to carry back anything but painfulmemories from another overseas campaign.Contrary to earlier reports, victory in both weekend matchesis mandatory to go through. Under the playing conditions,teams tied on points at the end are separated first by theresults of their qualifying round matches against each otherand then net run-rate.In other words, even if the West Indies repeat their earliertriumph over Sri Lanka but lose again to Zimbabwe, it wouldbe Zimbabwe for the final.Sri Lanka are already through on the strength of the twobonus points earned from their convincing results againstZimbabwe.The effect of such an outcome on Hooper personally is nothard to imagine. As he has repeatedly observed, he regardedthe series of three Tests as the gauge that would measurewhere the team stood following the encouraging tour ofZimbabwe and Kenya four months earlier.He has been at pains to condition the successes in Africa byreferring always with respect to the quality of theopposition. Sri Lanka, stronger, more experienced and withhome advantage, obviously offered a more realisticassessment.What followed was another overseas disaster, the latestclean sweep by the opposition to follow those by Pakistan,South Africa, New Zealand and Australia in the last fouryears.The submission to a Zimbabwe side without several of itsmajor players in the first match of the triangular serieswas a further setback.Tuesday night’s hard-fought upset over Sri Lanka was atimely comeback that kept alive hopes of belatedconsolation.It is an opportunity for Hooper to contribute moresubstantially than he has so far done as a player.Only Wasim Akram and Steve Waugh of contemporary playershave been in international cricket longer than his 14 yearshe made his Test debut against in Bombay on this very day in1987 and few are blessed with his natural ability.Yet his true potential has never been realised. Hints,against South Africa and Zimbabwe, that it finally wouldwith the responsibility of captaincy on return from hisself-imposed exile have proved an illusion here.His Test series average of 27.83 and the mode of hisdismissals in key innings were unsettling reminders of theunderachievement of such a obviously talented cricketer.The end of his innings against Sri Lanka on Tuesday typifiedthe flawed judgement that has been his undoing so often overthe years.He was well set with 29 in the 41st over and was battingwith Ramnaresh Sarwan who was also going comfortably in astand of 58.The total was 209 and Muttiah Muralitharan, Sri Lanka’s keybowler, had just come back for his last three overs. Onething was clear: given the West Indies’ lengthy tail, thecaptain’s presence was crucial to ensure the total of around270 that beckoned.Instead, Hooper stepped forward to Muralitharan’s third balland chipped it high to long-off, as if he was giving prematch catching practice. The stroke was as improper as theexample it set.Within a couple of overs, Sarwan and Marlon Samuels followedsuit and suddenly West Indies were battling to bat out theirallocation as they eked out 41 from the last ten overs.If the charge of a lack of commitment could once be madeagainst Hooper, not any more. His comportment since hisreturn has shown an appreciation of what the captaincy meansbut there hasn’t been a corresponding responsibility in hisperformance.For someone with his experience, he must know he has threematches left here to put things right.
