The former Windies bowler Curtly Ambrose and England batting great Geoffrey Boycott has disparaged the Windies poor performance against newly-appointed Joe Root-led England during the first-ever Pink ball Test in the United Kingdom last week.
The legendary bowler Ambrose has deemed the Jason Holder-led team as ‘embarrassing’ and equally ‘pathetic’ both with the bat and a ball at Edgbaston, as they went on to lose the game by an innings and 209 inside three days of the play on Saturday (August 19).
“In the end it was totally embarrassing. Trust me, it was painful to watch,” Ambrose was quoted as saying by Daily Mail.
The 53-year-old former fast bowler from Antigua, Ambrose further observed there was no fightback from the visitors during first the three days of the day-and-night Test which further saw Windies losing 19 wickets on a single day.
“I never saw any aggression from the West Indies players throughout the three days,” Ambrose maintained.
In the three match series, England is leading the Investec series by 1-0 after riding on the significant double hundred from opening batsman Alastair Cook.
Ambrose, who himself has played an integral role for Windies with the ball has himself featured in 98 Test matches in which he bagged 405 wickets and an impressive average of 20.99
Following the mediocre statistics, since 2000 Windies have registered just three wins in away Tests out of 87 in total as the numbers exclude the teams like Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.
“There was no belief that they could compete, let alone beat England. They seemed to be waiting for England to make mistakes and at this level that is not going to work,” Ambrose maintained.
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In the past, Ambrose, who has worked as a bowling coach for the national team revealed he has put all the support behind the players to talk about the length and breadth of the Caribbean cricket.
“I was with the team for two years as bowling coach and we tried to educate them about our heritage,” Ambrose stated.
On the other side, cricketer-turned-commentator Geoffrey Boycott revealed the Windies current lot is ‘worst’ in the set-up since past five decades of cricket while being a keen observer of the gentleman’s game be it on-the-field or off from it.
“This West Indies lot are the worst Test match team I have seen in more than 50 years of watching, playing and commentating on cricket,” Boycott opined in his exclusive column for The Daily Telegraph.
The former 76-year-old England Test batsman Boycott has further taken a subtle dig on the visitors batting and eventually the bowling line-up which was a threat in the 1970s and 80s.
“They can’t bat and can’t bowl,” Boycott concluded.
During his 18-year-long international career, Boycott, who has been a prominent figure for England after making his Test debut in 1964 against Australia at Nottingham, scored 8,114 runs at an average of 47.72 in 108 Tests.
The second Test is scheduled on Friday at Headingley and the third and final Test will be played at Iconic Lord’s.