Ex-great Garner demands review of Windies Test preparations

Sydney, Nov.30 (ANI): West Indies team manager and former fast bowling great Joel Garner has called for a review of national team's Test preparations and blamed an over-abundance of limited-overs cricket for their first Test humiliation.

He also bemoaned poor techniques and lack of patience from his batsman as they were dismissed for 228 and 187 by Australia at the Gabba. Australia had piled up a score of 480 earlier.

Garner rated the batting impetuosity as unacceptable on a "damn good cricket wicket", and also lamented players were unprepared for Test contests due to their heavy diet of one-day and Twenty20 matches.

He indicated the cash-strapped WICB needed to review preparations to ensure longer training camps and more tour matches.

"It would have been better if we would have been together for a month in training rather than going for a one-day tournament (Presidents Cup in Guyana) and then select a team to play in a Test series," The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Garner, as saying on Monday.

"A Test match is five days and we've played too much one-day cricket leading up to this series and that showed in how all of the fellows batted. I think we have to look at the way we prepare our players," he added.

Former Australian skipper Mark Taylor also criticised Windies batsmen for poor techniques.

Teenage debutant Adrian Barath (104) and fellow Test rookie Travis Dowlin (60), a late inclusion for the injured Ramnaresh Sarwan, were two who adapted to the bounce and pace of the Gabba.

"If you have two young players who can make the adjustment, it's a lesson going forward that the other players have to make the adjustment as well," Garner said. (ANI)