The lack of quality First-Class cricket in the Caribbean has impacted the Test team negatively and West Indies skipper Roston Chase wants the current bunch of players to get a longer run so that they can learn on the job.
Chase, the only man in the current squad with experience of 50-plus Tests (54), believes it would be foolhardy for anyone to compare players from the assortment of island nations with countries like India, Australia, or England, where Test debutants at times have already played 80 First-Class games.
When questioned if he would like the current crop to get more matches on the go, the skipper was all for it.
“Yeah, that would be lovely if we could obviously give some players a bit of a run so that they can learn on the job. Because when many of our players come to the international level, they play around 20 First-Class games, or 15 First-Class games.
“While other teams, when guys come into international cricket, they have 80 First-Class games, 100 First-Class games. So for us, it’s always learning on the job,” Chase said after his team lost the Test series 0-2 to India on Tuesday. “So if a guy can get a little longer run so that he can adjust and adapt to this level and see what it takes for him to improve and to be consistent at this level, I think that’s good.”
The West Indies, after three indifferent performances in their first three innings, fought hard and scored 390 in the second innings at Kotla, with hundreds from John Campbell and Shai Hope.
“I just think that the fight that we showed in this last game will, as I said, give us that belief and that confidence to know that we have what it takes to perform at this level.
“But it’s just to consistently keep working hard and believing and working as a team.”
Chase admitted that a happy dressing room is always the winning dressing room.
“I think that sometimes you don’t really have that joy in the dressing room because we’re not really playing good. So it’s not really enjoyable to come out there and be on the losing end.
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“But once we can find that enjoyment in still playing and working hard for each other, I think that will take the group forward.” Recently, the West Indies U-19 team’s batters came for a training programme at the CSK Academy, and Chase welcomed such moves in the future.
“That would be great if our board could organise more such training programs. But obviously, we know they keep saying and we know it’s a bit hard for us to have everything put in place. So we just have to work with what we have.
“But I think it’s good that the guys could come down here and have exposure to playing spin. Because I think we’re a bit more comfortable playing fast bowling than good spin bowling.”
Published on Oct 14, 2025
