West Indies used to give Sachin fond farewell

Former West Indies and T&T off-spinner Rangy Nanan says that India used the West Indies cricket team for their farewell series for Sachin Tendulkar because they wanted him to sign off with a century. West Indies played India late last year in two Test matches in that country. The second Test match at Mumbai marked the 200th and final Test for the master batsman and he fell short of a century—reaching 74. India went on to win the two-Test rubber 2-0. According to Nanan: “India used the West Indies for Sachin Tendulkar’s farewell. They obviously wanted him to score a century in his final series and this is why they went for the weaker opposition. Why they didn’t go for a stronger team like South Africa. At the time they were ranked second and South Africa first in the Test rankings. They wanted to send Tendulkar off in glory and went for the West Indies.”





Nanan who played a lone Test for West Indies taking four wickets against Pakistan in 1981 added: “What made it even easier for them was the bad decision made by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) in sending the team to Florida to prepare for a tournament. This did not make any sense. Here it is that you are going half way across the world to play a top team and you are acclimatising in Florida. “The team should have gone to India earlier so that they could have gotten a taste of the conditions and probably play some matches leading up to the Test matches. Obviously the team was not well prepared for the battle and just caved in to the Indians.”



Looking at the recent Test tour of New Zealand where West Indies lost the two-Test series 1-0, Nanan said: “Again here was a case of the team not being well prepared. The selectors erred by not making adjustments because the conditions in New Zealand are vastly different to those in India. “We have a situation where half of the team was still in India, while the other half was playing a practice match in New Zealand with some locals on board. Why didn’t the WICB ask the New Zealanders to probably start the series a week later, so that the other players could have arrived and at least gotten a game under their belts. “West Indies were fortunate that they drew the first match thanks  to a double century from Darren Bravo. We needed to be there earlier to get some knowledge of the conditions but that did not happen.”
guardian.co.tt