Jacobs overlooked (03 June 1999)

03 June 1999

Jacobs overlooked

Tony Cozier in London

IGNORED for so many years by the West Indies selectors, Ridley Jacobs has now found himself overlooked by writers and commentators picking their unofficial teams from performances in the first round of the 1999 World Cup.

And only two West Indians were included in any of the unofficial 11s named today by four correspondents in The Guardian newspaper and two former Test captains on Sky Sports television.

David Foot in The Guardian placed Brian Lara in his 11 and Paul Weaver in the same newspaper found space for Courtney Walsh. But, in spite of the overwhelming statistical evidence, none of the others (former England medium-pacer Mike Selvey and David Hopps of The Guardian, and Allan Border of Australia and Alan Lamb of England on Sky) chose a single West Indian, not Jacobs, not Walsh, not Curtly Ambrose.

Either they know nothing about the game, didn't follow the matches properly or have a serious anti-West Indies bias.

Their most glaring omission is Jacobs.

In conditions that confounded most of the other opening batsmen, with the white ball swerving and seaming on helpful pitches, Jacobs somehow thrived in an unaccustomed position.

He was there at the start and there at the end of the innings against New Zealand, with 80 out of 158 for three, and Australia, with 49 out of the all-out total of 110. His other scores were 25 against Pakistan and 51 run out against Bangladesh.

Others at the top of the order who arrived with more formidable reputations - Sanath Jayasuriya of Sri Lanka, Adam Gilchrist and Mark Waugh of Australia, Saeed Anwar and Shahid Afridi of Pakistan - found they couldn't properly cope. Even India's champion Sachin Tendulkar dropped from opening to No. 4 after the first match.

In addition to his batting, Jacobs held 14 catches, four more dismissals than Pakistan's Moin Khan, and missed none. Yet Moin, Zimbabwe's Andy Flower and Sri Lanka's Romesh Kaluwitherana were given preference over him.

And we think West Indies selectors are daft.

Walsh made only one of today's combined teams, Ambrose none.

The fact that Walsh took 11 wickets at 9.81 each at an average rate of 2.29 an over and Ambrose seven wickets at 13.42 with an economy rate of 2.35 apparently counted for nothing. Only four others - Tom Moody of Australia, Dion Nash of New Zealand and Shaun Pollock and Steve Elsworthy of South Africa - managed to keep their run rates below 3.00 an over.

Instead, Allan Donald of South Africa (11 wickets at 14.45, economy 4.17) gets into five of the six 11s and Glenn McGrath of Australia (10 wickets at 18.40, economy 4.00) into Border's and Lamb's.

One writer, David Hopps in The Guardian, even picked Nick Knight, England left-hand opening batsman who did not play a game.

It may all be baffling but is it so surprising?

Of course, it's all purely academic - and Jacobs, Walsh and Ambrose, like the other West Indians, will now be forgotten anyway as they head for home while the tournament moves towards its climax.

Perhaps it would be a worthwhile exercise picking a Worst XI. The West Indies would surely have one or two candidates for that.

Source :: The Barbados Nation (https://www.nationnews.com/)