West Indies should be barred from Test cricket: Hughes

Melbourne: With a skipper who doesn`t even want to play Test cricket, the West Indies are in complete disarray and should be barred from the longer version of the game until they prove themselves worthy, feels former Australian captain Kim Hughes.

After their humiliating innings and a 65 runs defeat to Australia in opening Test in Brisbane, Hughes said the Caribbeans` shoddy performance was a poor advertisement for Test cricket which is already battling dwindling spectator interest.

"It`s good for Australia to be winning, but this is not good for Test cricket. We should have countries that play only limited-overs cricket such as the West Indies and Bangladesh until such time as they are worthy of playing Test cricket axed," Hughes was quoted as saying.

"Cricket in the West Indies is in disarray and they have a skipper who doesn`t even want to play Test cricket," he added, taking a dig at Chris Gayle, who had created a storm some time ago by saying that he wouldn`t be crying if Test cricket died.

Hughes said the ongoing series was a joke given the gap between the two sides.

"...it is all a joke. Most (of West Indies players) hadn`t played any cricket with the red ball since May. Logic would tell you that if you hadn`t played Test cricket since May that you would need more lead-in games," he pointed out.

PTI