Poor pitches, poorer opposition and cows on the wicket have made pre-Test games in the Caribbean entirely unpredictable
From Mike Gatting’s shiner to Andrew Flintoff’s pedalo England’s visits to West Indies have rarely been free of memorable incident, with even the humble warm-ups reliably producing drama, interest and controversy. England are due to arrive in Barbados on Friday for their latest tour and it would be no surprise if the first days were to throw up a few dramatic moments – and perhaps a bit of comedy.
So intriguing have previous warm-ups been that on the one vaguely recent occasion when they were not particularly compelling, the lack of interest was itself interesting. That was in 1990, when England prepared for a Test series against a side packed with fast bowlers and exclusively right-handed batsmen with a series of games against teams stuffed with spinners and southpaws.
Written by Simon Burnton
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/jan/08/the-spin-england-west-indies under the title “The Spin | From sunstroke to stray dogs, Windies warm-ups are rarely dull for England”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
