PARTY OVER

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31835, 13 November 1968, Page 19

PARTY OVER

(N.Z. Press Aasn. —Copyright) ADELAIDE. The West Indies cricket team has been given a pep talk and told “the party is over” after its humiliating defeat by South Australia. The team manager, Mr B. Gaskin, and the captain, G. S. Sobers, called a team meeting to straighten out the players' apparent lacklustre attitude to the tour so far. On Monday the West Indies lost to South Australia by 10 wickets. A week previously the tourists were beaten by an Australian XL

“We played very badly on Monday and in the first innings against the South Australians,” Mr Gaskin said. “Even though there was a marked difference in the pitches here and in Perth, our batsmen played shots that had no relevance to the situation.” There was no excuse for the team’s massive bad batting. Mr Gaskin said that

Sobers had told the players that they had come to Australia “to win not lose.”

“What is heartening is that they all realise it was a pretty poor spectacle and are determined not to let it happen again,” he said. Sobers pulled no punches as he told reporters: “Our fielding in this match was terrible and our batsmen are not concentrating enough. “Some of our players appear to be taking things a bit too light-heartedly. This is not a tour of fun and spree. “Unless we pull our fielding together we’re going to be struggling.”