The fortnight since my last column has been an eventful one. From a cricketing perspective much of the time was spent watching televised coverage of England 4-0 Series humiliation of India. On a more personal level, I was also subjected to some very angry phone calls from individuals who had received second hand reports about the supposedly unflattering comments I made in my last column about their Toronto 2011 Carnival activities.

In the second of the two instances, I was informed that my citing of the XPats Section as a prime example of the lack of cohesiveness within Louis Saldenah's 2011 Carnival Band, had caused severe consternation amongst some of the Section's members. My agreement with their expressed view that it was an unfair and one-sided comment about an otherwise superbly managed organization, was sufficient to warrant a public apology on FaceBook.
This being essentially a cricket oriented column, my primary focus for this issue will be on the lessons provided by England's emergence as the World's number one ranked Test team. These may be of immense value to those currently responsible for managing the affairs of Caribbean cricket moreso if the West Indies team is to harbor any hope of returning to the pinnacle of world cricket any time soon.
With the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman as batters as well as Zaheer Khan and Harbajan Singh as bowlers in their team, India's four-Test contest against their English hosts was expected to be a very competitive and closely matched affair. As the 4-0 eventual Series scoreline indicated it turned out to be quite the opposite. India were comprehensively outplayed by their English hosts in every department of the game. The positions in the official Test rankings were also reversed, England capturing the top spot and India slipping to number three, behind second-ranked South Africa.
The keys to England success and their capture of the top ranking for Test Teams were, not surprisingly, identical to those which had influenced successes by the world champions West Indian and Australian teams of the last three decades. The factors that served to influence the success those three teams, the West Indies from 1980-1995, Australia from 1995 – 2009 and the current English squad, actually reveal a common set of characteristics.
These consist of a strong, settled pair of opening batsmen; a batting middle-order comprised of the perfect blend of aggression and resistance; a wicket-keeper batsman as good in front of the wicket with the bat, as behind with the gloves and a four prong bowling attack capable of capturing twenty-wickets on any kind of surface. Throw in superb catching, excellent fielding and a dedication to fitness by each and every member of the team and the commonality of the pillars of each of those team's success becomes apparent for all to see. The final characteristic was of course that they were all superbly led by a captain whose role as leader and player was above debate.
For the West Indies, the opening batting partnership of Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes more often than not provided the ideal start to their team's innings. Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer did the same for Australia, as did Andrew Strauss and Alistair Cook for England within recent months.
To complement their openers, in Vivian Richards, Alvin Kallicharran, Ritchie Richardson, Clive Lloyd and Larry Gomes, the West Indies possessed a middle order fully capable of alternating from mercilessly destroying bowling attacks to defending resolutely, according to the specific demands of the match.
Ricky Pointing, the Waugh brothers Steve and Mark and Mike Hussey were Australia's equivalents who proved themselves to be such torments to opposing bowlers during their reign. In Kevin Petersen, Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott, England now similarly possess three world class players capable of making runs against any type of bowling.
The third common element in all three teams is that of a wicket-keeper batsman, of equal competence both in front and behind the stumps. The West Indies' Jeff Dujon, Australia's Adam Gilchrist and England's Matt Prior all proved their value to their respective teams with their highly competent keeping and above average batting.
A bowling attack comprised of four front-line bowlers is yet another characteristic common to these three teams. The West Indies success was of course fueled by their legendary pace attack. Any combination of Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Joel Garner, Colin Croft, Malcolm Marshall, Sylvester Clarke, Ian Bishop and later Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose, was sufficient to demolish any opposition batting.
Australia's combination of the pacers Glen McGrath, Jason Gillespie and Brett Lee, together with Shane Warne's all-time great leg-spin repeatedly provided the means to capture the twenty wickets necessary to win Test matches.
In Stuart Broad, Jimmy Anderson, Tim Bresnan, Chris Tremlett and Graeme Swann, England now have superb available choices for a four pronged bowling attack that should prove itself to be the measure of any opposition batting it faces in the years ahead.
Throw in outstanding catching, a concentration on fitness and leadership from a captain whose place at the helm and in the team is beyond dispute and again you have all the ingredients of supremacy as illustrated by the aforementioned West Indies and Australian teams and that which now represents England.
The extent to which the West Indies team may be able to mirror such characteristics in its team composition any time soon will have to be examined in future columns. My preference is to instead use the space remaining in this issue to return to correcting any misunderstanding that may have been caused by the comments I made about the XPats Crew in my last column.
As valid as it may have been, my observation about the apparent lack of coordination amongst the XPats leadership, was not in any way intended to undermine the very high level of admiration and respect I have always had for that organization and its management. Of all the many groups I have ever worked with in Toronto's Caribbean community, XPats has always demonstrated itself to be one of the very best.
Having always provided unquestionable value to its Section members XPats may actually have outdone themselves this year. Their costumes were in my opinion the best they have ever been; a shining reflection of their tendency to improve with each and every passing year.
On the road during the Parade their masqueraders were, as always, adequately provided with food and beverages. XPats has also always enjoyed a relationship with their key sponsors that is the envy of other bands and worthy of emulation. For these reasons and more, they have always been my very first choice when deciding who to "go down the road with" during the Caribana/Toronto Carnival Parade.
I can understand and appreciate how and why the comments I made may have caused as much consternation as they reportedly did. Upon reflection I should have included comments that would have provided a far more favorable balance to the column.