Inattentive Jerome Taylor misses a catch for West Indies because he is caught leaning on fence

Jerome Taylor’s fielding howler is the stuff of comedy, but sums up the tragedy of West Indies cricket

The West Indies cricket team took professional cricket to a new low in their tour match against Victoria XI in Geelong, a 2-day match being played as part of their tour of Australia. Fielder Jerome Taylor could not take an easy catch because he was caught dozing off – leaning on the ground’s fence and looking at the crowd.

Fielders have been rarely known to be inattentive during top level games such as these, and this is definitely the first time a player has been seen leaning on a fence instead of going for a regulation catch.

After the visitors had declared overnight at 7-303, the inexperienced hosts were 3-169 in response when play was abandoned on day two due to rain – the highlight of the day being Jerome Taylor’s howler.

Skipper Jason Holder was bowling the 14th over when John Hancock hooked a ball to fine leg for what should have been a regulation catch. The West Indies team turned their heads expectantly, and started yelling in shock as they saw Taylor nowhere in sight as the ball travelled to where he should have been placed.

Taylor was not even inside the boundary ropes when the ball was in the air, still leaning on the fence with his back to the cricket match, looking at the crowd.

Jason Holder, not a stranger to being let down by those around him, cannot have been pleased about Taylor’s carelessness, but the West Indies players were seen having a laugh about the incident and carrying on with the game.

Never seen anything like this: Hancock

Hancock, who was then batting on 22, ended the day at 80*, as the match ended in a draw. He admitted later that he had “got away with one”, and that had never seen anything like what happened.

He also said that the West Indies players “had a chuckle” before turning their attention to the next delivery.

“It (ball) got down there so quick and by the time I hit it and turned around, they’d shouted and it was into the boundary,” Hancock said.

“I couldn’t see what happened but he wasn’t even on the field, was he? I probably would’ve preferred to knock it down there for one, but I hit it a bit too well and it carried. I got away with it though.”

It is needless to say that the Windies players must pull up their socks if they are to avoid even bigger humiliation at the Boxing Day Test against Australia.