The confidence of the West Indies batsmen in the Durham Test was low but they didn’t apply themselves as they could have. Take Chris Gayle’s 54 from 43 balls on Sunday evening: I don’t like it when a batsman plays like that in that situation in a Test. If I was the opposition I would have been happy – it was just a matter of time before he got out. You might be lucky and get a fifty or a hundred but you need to consolidate and let your team-mates know that you are there for a long time not just to go out and blast.

You can go out and play shots to demoralise a bowling attack but there are different ways of doing it. Gayle looked good, but it was not the right approach for the team, especially from the captain. I don’t know if he had discussed it with the coach, or if it was just how he felt at the time.

I was impressed with Ramnaresh Sarwan but I would still like to see more innings built around him, if he’s getting a hundred there should be a couple of other guys getting a score. There need to be solid partnerships. They need to find ways of developing confidence and building three or four partnerships, because you do not want to make a habit of not being able to score 300 runs.

Devon Smith has had a lot of chances but still averages under 25. He always looks good but it’s all about how much you produce. There is no way you should have a technique as good as his and not score more centuries. He asked me in the Caribbean last year what was required to go on, and I told him to back himself, and not think anything negative. If he hits it in the air he has to believe it is not going to be caught, that he is going to be there for a long time and score big runs.

I was hopeful rather than confident that West Indies could turn things around in this Test but it is done now and I am sure the players are disappointed. But when you look at the series in the Caribbean, England had plenty of chances to win there, so it doesn’t surprise me that in cold early-season English conditions England have won.

West Indies would have wanted to put up a better show but that is history and they have to focus on winning the ODI series. They have Dwayne Bravo back. Bravo’s absence from the Tests was strange. Playing for your country comes first, and while selectors said his ankle wasn’t up to the strain of Test cricket, if he is fit enough to play one-day cricket he should be more than fit enough to play Tests. Even though limited-overs matches are shorter there is more strain on the body – they are much more intense, you are under pressure all the time. Bravo would have made a difference in the Tests. He’s always involved – he knows how to take wickets, scores runs freely and is the best fielder in the team. He is also a team man – he inspires players.

It’s sad that no one seems to want the West Indies captaincy. As captain you get a lot of pressure from all angles and even more when you are losing. Maybe the players just don’t have the confidence in the board – but most cricketers should want to captain their country. It’s the greatest honour in sport. I had never thought of captaining my country and when it was offered I couldn’t believe it but I couldn’t turn it down – it was such an honour.

Richie Richardson is writing weekly for thewisdencricketer.com for the duration of the West Indies tour of England in association with the Antigua Tourist Board

I am sad that my former England colleague Chris Lewis has been found guilty of smuggling cocaine. He could have been known as one of the most talented allrounders in the world.

Chris loves his cricket and was a great team man – always encouraging people. At times because everything seemed so easy for him – the very easy way he batted and bowled, people used to think it came to him naturally. That wasn’t true, he worked a lot harder than people thought. When we were on tour and the rest of us were sleeping Chris would be up doing an hour in the gym at 7am – and after the game would be the same.

Expectations can get the better of anyone. He knew what he was capable of, but too much was expected of Chris. I loved the pressure of expectation, I loved the pressure of going to a Test match and the captain or selectors saying: “Get Dev in, he’ll bowl these guys out like he did at The Oval in 1994.” I thrived on that, but if you put that pressure on certain types of players they fade away. Because of his ability he was often judged unfairly by the press and spectators when he failed, when in fact the opposition had performed exceptionally. He could do everything – bat, bowl, field – but you could see he was burdened by that expectation, even though he never spoke about it.

—-

I was very impressed by the way Jimmy Anderson bowled in England’s Test victory at Durham, with confidence, pace and control. You can only beat who is put in front of you. Generally, later in the summer I’m not sure the attack will be so effective. It would be great to get Flintoff back in there, and maybe Harmison too if he is fit, but if they don’t have that extra pace then England need to look hard at using two spinners. When Monty Panesar gets it right he is one of the best left-arm spinners in the world.

Stuart Broad is improving day by day and hopefully you are going to see him put his name in lights against Australia. I can see Graham Onions featuring against Australia too. He’s done well on flattish pitches in county cricket, and even Lord’s wasn’t doing too much. Playing against Australia is totally different to playing against West Indies, but it was a decent start.

It’s good when guys like Onions do well because it gives the bowlers in county cricket something to aim for. At the same time, Onions will not be able to rest on his laurels because he knows that any fast bowlers out there, like Amjad Khan at Kent, know that with Harmison not firing there is a space in the team for a genuine quick. Now we just have to find one hitting form at the right time, who is bowling fast and believes in his own ability.

Devon Malcolm is writing weekly for thewisdencricketer.com for the duration of the West Indies tour of England in association with the Antigua Tourist Board

Seeing Andrew Strauss throw Graham Swann the new ball last week reminded me of a Test match I played against Australia at the Oval (in August 1997, Malcolm’s final Test). We were up against it – Phil Tufnell had taken seven wickets in the Australia first innings but they only needed 118 in the second – a tiny score to chase. Earlier Mike Atherton said to me on the balcony while we were batting, “Dev, if we’ve got a small total to bowl at, you won’t be bowling. I’m going to open the bowling with Tufnell”.

I was so upset. I said, “Look mate you’re bloody crazy, you can’t. Give me that new ball and if I don’t get you a wicket by the second or third over take me off. We need to put a shock under them straight away.” I actually worked on Athers for a full session and eventually we had to go out there and bowl. Again I said, “No way. I’ve never played a game of cricket without using that new ball.”

As we were walking down the stairs he said, “Ok Dev”. I got Matthew Elliott out lbw in the second over and I just winked at Athers on my walk back. I said, “You can go back to your original plan now, at least we’ve given them a bit of a fright”.

Then Athers brought Tufnell on and he bowled Australia out, taking four second innings wickets to finish with 11 in the match. And we won the Test. That is the closest I’ve been to having the new ball taken off me and given to a spinner.

Bowlers these days have got their team plans, Strauss realised Devon Smith didn’t play Swanny well enough and tried it out. It didn’t work straight away but later on Swann came back and knocked Smith over first ball. The plan was there, it was clever thinking. It’s not for me though. I would bleed for that new ball.

Moving on to the referral system, it doesn’t surprise me that it will not be used in the Ashes. It’s a high-profile series, so the system has got to be right before we try and implement it. At the moment the amount of time it takes is not good at all. We must get it right so the players, the umpires on the field, the third umpire and the commentators know exactly what the rules are. There was total confusion in the West Indies.

It is important to move with the times, but I liked the game the way I played it. Then the umpire was the most respected person on the field and his decision was final – bad decisions balanced themselves out. Nowadays the ethics are going out of cricket. Youngsters can take an umpire on and question his decision. Because of this instant decision, the respect for the umpire is disappearing. Having said that, sometimes I look at decisions from Test matches that I’ve played in and I think I would have got a lot more wickets with referrals.

Devon Malcolm is writing weekly for thewisdencricketer.com for the duration of the West Indies tour of England in association with the Antigua Tourist Board

Chris Gayle has his own opinion and it’s his right to express it, but I’m not too sure about the timing of it, just before a crucial Test match to save the series. Let’s hope it will have a positive effect on his players. Sometimes it can be a bit of reverse psychology as well, you say a certain thing as captain and it makes the opposition look at you in a different way and disrupts them. There has already been a reaction from Andrew Strauss, which is probably what Gayle wanted.

As far as Test cricket is concerned, he’s obviously a bit tired of it and has had enough of captaincy. Initially he didn’t want the job – he’s a pretty laid back guy and likes to take it easy, and the pressure of being captain, not necessarily on the field but all of the other things off it is one of his major concerns. He obviously needs a lot of time for himself, which he doesn’t get as captain. I can attest to that. My batting deteriorated after I became captain, and one of the reasons was that I didn’t have enough time to focus on my game or put in the type of personal practice and training that I was accustomed to. I empathise with him a little where that is concerned, but he’s got to look at himself as well, and if he’s not comfortable with the job, then there is nothing wrong in expressing that and people have got to respect that.

I think it’s important to always try to promote the game of Test cricket, because it is vital to the continued development of all forms of the game. Even though some players are more suited to the shorter version, every player should aspire to play Test cricket – that is the real cricket, the real Test. Even though we understand the importance of Twenty20 and the shorter forms of the game, we should always look forward to Test cricket, it is the ultimate and everything should be done to preserve this format of the game.

If Gayle were to give up the job I would probably go back to Ramnaresh Sarwan, if he wants it, for a period of time. Chanderpaul had it for a while but Sarwan has always been one of my favourites as captain of West Indies. If he is not comfortable I wouldn’t have a problem giving it to young Denesh Ramdin, he has shown tremendous potential as a cricketer. He has captained in a one-day match and seemed to do ok. He seems a calm guy and it is obvious that the selectors see some potential in him.

Gayle also made reference to the older generations of West Indian cricketers not understanding how hard it was to lose. In the past we have played in losing teams, but probably we have not lost as much as the current team or in the way that they are losing. You have to expect to be criticised when you are not doing well. Nothing is wrong with criticism – I was criticised a hell of a lot and I liked it because it helped me. At the same time, you don’t want to jump on a bandwagon to be knocking, knocking, knocking – you’ve got to look to encourage and look at the positives as well, if we keep knocking them they are going to go into a cocoon and think they are useless and never improve. As West Indians we have to criticise properly and constructively, and help the players as much as possible.

We also need to look at what the real problems are – why is it that our players are not playing well? These are questions that we have to ask. I know that there is something wrong with the structure of the administration of our cricket, and it is affecting our players. If you don’t get things right administratively then things are not going to be right for the players. It is a little bit unfair to criticise the players totally.

Gayle can still rally West Indies in Durham – you may have thoughts and feelings but when you go out there you still have to focus on the job in hand. I have not been around the team but I get the feeling that they want to bounce back, and that is evident in the stuff that Chris Gayle has been saying. I think that we will see much more fight in Durham – they have a lot of pride in what they do and will not want to lose 2-0.

Richie Richardson is writing weekly for thewisdencricketer.com for the duration of the West Indies tour of England in association with the Antigua Tourist Board

In the first of his weekly blogs for thewisdencricketer.com the former England fast bowler Devon Malcolm has a look at the England bowling attack.

A convincing win for England at Lord’s, and the West Indies batting never got going. It’s the early season – and we never normally start a Test series this early – so the ball was always likely to wobble around a bit. Graham Onions is a swing bowler and it didn’t surprise me that he troubled them. But as you saw when Fidel Edwards was bowling, there is no substitute for pace, even in the early season. Fidel can get up above ninety mph, and he had England in trouble.

If there’s a guy who can bowl that three to five mph quicker that’s the difference. You can see that with the dismissal of Pietersen in England’s first innings. Edwards was generally bowling at around 88mph, then he gives Pietersen one at 92mph – an absolute pearler. Pietersen had to be very good to nick that.

Looking further ahead to the Ashes, when the pitches are a little bit dryer and slower later on, it will be a lot more difficult for guys like Onions and Tim Bresnan. England will need someone with a bit of extra pace and bounce and that person is Steve Harmison. The trouble is he’s not firing at the moment.

To bowl fast you need to have confidence and good rhythm. I don’t believe Harmison has a problem with rhythm. It’s something in his mind. Pace comes with confidence. If you have a confident mind and you are fit, you will bowl fast. If you’ve got a little something in the back of your mind it will slow you down.

You shouldn’t give guys like Harmison a central contract. I’m not speaking out against central contracts per se but there are certain characters that make up a team and there are certain ways to manage them. I don’t like the way he speaks at certain times. How I’m reading it at the moment, it doesn’t matter to Harmison if he doesn’t play against West Indies or Australia because he’s still got a central contract. At the back of his mind he’s an England player.

It seems as if he’s too comfortable. Fast bowlers are not comfortable people. You’ve always got to be striving because you know you’ve got to be a firestarter. You’ve got to be a force, mentally and physically. You’ve got to have the confidence to be in the opposing batsman’s face.

Steve just seems a little bit fragile at the moment. The simplest little thing knocks him off line. It seems he still hasn’t fully recovered from that first ball he bowled in the last Ashes series. I’ve never heard Steve say that was a terrible day. I remember young Stuart Broad’s reaction to getting hit for six sixes. He talked about it and said ‘look, it was one of those days, I tried everything and the batsmen got hold of me’. I thought great, this is a boy with real character who’s going to go far. From the way he talked about it you felt this boy was able to get it out of his system.

I’ve had my nightmares in the field and you have to be able to laugh at yourself and move on. With Steve, it seems like it’s still something in the back of his mind. He’s not open about it and doesn’t get it off his chest. The whole situation is worrying because I look around out there and I don’t see an out-and-out English pace bowler like Harmison. There are a lot of players out there who are line-and-length dibbly-dobblers.

I must also say this: Harmison should never play in the England team if he’s not using the new ball. He should have the confidence to say: ‘I want that new ball. As an out-and-out fast bowler that should be my right.’ Harmison as second-change. No way! You’re hiding him like that. The opposition see that the guy who is meant to be your quickest bowler is not taking the new ball and it’s a big psychological advantage.

Devon Malcolm is writing weekly for thewisdencricketer.com for the duration of the West Indies tour of England in association with the Antigua Tourist Board

In the first of his weekly blogs for thewisdencricketer.com the former West Indies captain Richie Richardson reviews their start to the tour

We obviously prefer the sunshine in the Caribbean so coming to play a Test match so early in the season in England is not easy. I remember that most times I played here at Lord’s it was cold and damp – the cold would have an effect on the team and maybe that’s why so many catches were dropped by the West Indies. It takes a lot of adjusting and a lot of the current players don’t have much experience in English conditions.

Yesterday’s collapse was unfortunate. When it’s damp and the ball is moving around it is difficult, but that’s cricket. They have to get their heads down and try and bat and bat and bat and salvage this Test match, and then they can take confidence from that. As a player you know what’s ahead of you and have to try your best to adjust and adapt to new conditions.

For some reason they didn’t seem as if they are quite ready, or maybe they haven’t woken up yet. Their approach yesterday morning wasn’t one of a team who has taken seven wickets. But Fidel Edwards is looking good. I still think that Jerome Taylor is a better bowler, but Fidel has a lot more pace and he is improving. He has changed his action to give himself a bit more control – he is a little bit higher and his jump is different. He was wayward in the past, but he still has that pace and will trouble a lot of batsmen.

Lionel Baker has potential, he is still relatively young and he has the ability to bowl fast. But the most important thing is for him is to be as accurate as possible, and to be able to get some movement. If bowling faster means that he would give up the control, then I would prefer him to focus on being accurate and looking to work batsmen out.

Chris Gayle can get the guys to rally around him. He is very calm, very easy-going, and though he gives the impression that he is sometimes not in control the players have high regard for him. They seem to always go and do it for him and that is important. He is a good captain – he does things his way, his style and if he can continue to get them to work and believe in themselves we will see the West Indies improving.

As far as his late arrival for the tour it would have been ideal if they had arrived together but I don’t see a major problem with him arriving a few days before a series and going straight into the Tests. Fidel has arrived late and is looking impressive, Ravi Bopara has arrived late and scored an excellent century.

I haven’t seen much of Bopara but he looks positive, he’s not afraid to play his shots and he is pretty solid as well. From batting three throughout my career I know that it carries a lot of responsibility, and for him to produce there shows that he’s mature and can score runs in that position. At first-down you have to have a good technique and be very sound – a lot depends on you there. You have to be calm, establish yourself and then take command of the game and set the stage, demoralise the bowlers and set the foundation for a large total.

Richie Richardson is writing weekly for thewisdencricketer.com for the duration of the West Indies tour of England in association with the Antigua Tourist Board