Lequay's Warning
Sun, Oct 10, '04
Trinidad & Tobago cricket boss Alloy Lequay has a warning for the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB): Do not impose a foreign head coach on Brian Lara unless issues of authority and empowerment are fleshed out in advance.
In an interview with BC Pires in Sunday's Trinidad Express, Lequay said the WICB's new team structure that gives sweeping powers to the head coach is bound to backfire because of the way it strips away the authority of the team captain.
"I'm very, very doubtful that you could give a coach that level of authority over a captain," said Lequay, the former TTCBC president who now serves as chief executive officer.
"We are going into a new era, making the coach the main selector [with] authority over the captain to decide the final eleven and the game plan. Unless you in advance make everybody aware of the new procedures, you are going to have conflict," he added.
Under the new management structure, the head coach will sit on the selection panel with the casting vote and the principal authority on the selection of the final XI. It calls for the captain to lead the team on the field and carry out the strategy and tactics as determined in collaboration with the Head Coach.
But, Lequay doesn't like what he sees. "The captain is the man who should decide, "This is the opposition. This is the state of the wicket. This is the final eleven I want. We could discuss the game plan inside [but] when I go out there, it is my responsibility to implement [it]. I accept that responsibility. And if the team doesn't perform, I accept responsibility for the non-performance"," Lequay added.
Asked directly if he had Brian Lara in mind, Lequay said: "Yeah, Brian is a very strong personality and he understands what he wants to achieve. Whether you agree with him or not, he knows the legacy he wants to leave behind. You can't just impose a coach on Brian, if we're talking about individuals and not about general principles, and expect Brian to accept the authority of a coach, particularly if it is a foreign coach whose personality is not in sync with Brian's. They are going to have difficulties unless they sit in advance and iron these out."
Lequay, who once accused the WICB of embarrassing T&T's national hero when Lara was overlooked for the captaincy in favour of Courtney Walsh, called on the board to handle Lara very carefully through the transition.
"[I]f we are satisfied Brian is the person, as captain and as the batting genius he is, who will help us reach back that position of supremacy we once held, then we must understand Brian must continue to have a certain level of authority to go with the responsibility he carries, and not merely impose authority over him and then he responds negatively," Lequay added.
"Brian must know he needs help to take the next step forward. In his second stint as captain, Brian is trying to woo the players, to get them to respect him as a player and person and as primus inter pares. He's trying to build that relationship with the team. To bring that new [coaching] procedure without involving Brian and the rest of the players, that's where I visualise conflict. Brian should accept the help he gets; but it is the manner in which you offer that help."
