Sunday 20 August 2017 17:36, UK
Windies must rethink their team selection to maximise their chances of rallying after a crushing defeat in the first Test to England, says Michael Holding.
The tourists were thrashed by an innings and 209 runs at Edgbaston after leaving out leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo and seamer Shannon Gabriel.
Bishoo claimed career-best figures of 8-49 against Pakistan in the Windies' inaugural floodlit Test in Dubai in October and while Headingley, where the second Test is to be contested from Friday, isn't renowned as helpful for spinners, Holding says captain Jason Holder must consider an alternative line of attack.
"We heard a lot of talk, of course, from captain and coach along the lines of 'don't write off the West Indies, we have a chance'; that is bravado," said Holding.
"What they need to do is sit down and think to themselves 'how can we actually do something on the field? What have we got?'
"First of all I don't think the team that was selected was the right team - they've got to have a specialist spinner in the team because medium-pacers on pitches like the one at Edgbaston aren't going to work.
"So they've got to work out what the right team is and then move from there.
"They are not a great team - everybody knows that, but you've still got to make the right moves. If you lose doing the right thing, then fine - but you can't start of doing the right thing by making wrong selections."
The margin of Windies' defeat re-ignited debate about the validity of introducing two divisions of Test-match cricket.
"That has been in my mind since this Test series started - and I've been talking about it for years," said Holding.
"What is the point of having a team outclassing another team like this?
"I played Test cricket for 12 years. I never played a Test match against Sri Lanka because at that time Sri Lanka just weren't good enough to play against the West Indies.
"What is the point of having a contest like this? It's not good for cricket."
Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Darren Bravo and Darren Sammy are all missing from the current Test squad - the legacy of a dispute with West Indies cricket chiefs and the competing attractions of the lucrative Caribbean Premier League Twenty20 tournament that is taking place at the same time as this Test series.
West Indies are the reigning World Twenty20 champions and there are fears that Test cricket may never regain the pride of place it once enjoyed in the region.
Johnny Grave, the English chief executive of what is now Cricket West Indies, accepted an "awful" amount of work was required to restore the team's Test fortunes.
"I think we are certainly best at the Twenty20 format," Grave told Sky Sports during Saturday's tea interval.
"Our system of producing cricketers allows us to compete at that level rather than the longer formats of the game, where the inadequacies of our system is really highlighted," added Grave, who made his name in cricket administration with London-based county Surrey and England's Professional Cricketers Association.
"Jimmy Adams (a former West Indies captain), our new director of cricket and I have got an awful lot to do to put in place a really professional system underneath the men's international side to produce better cricketers."
Watch the second Test between England and Windies live on Sky Sports Cricket from 10am on Friday.
