Let's Embrace Expansion in W.I Cricket

Tue, Aug 20, '02

by KENNY GREEN

I read with interest Tony Cozier?s verdict last Sunday on the attempts by the WICB to expand the Red Stripe Bowl tournament. His theme on consolidation would ring true if he presented more persuasive facts to go with his argument. Myself, I will show rare unity with the WICB on this.

Here is why: Lets take one team -- Trinidad. In its current lineup, Lara, Dillon, Ramnarine, Black, Browne and Ganga have played for the senior West Indies team. Smith, Bravo and Simmons for Windies ?A? and Sooklal for WI U19. Amazingly only Andy 'Action' Jackson has not played at any level of WI representation. What does this mean? Well for one it means that all of these players are known elements. I could repeat this exercise for Jamaica, Barbados and Guyana and what would emerge with is an amazing fact.

Only Sewnarine Chattergoon, Dale Richards and Andy Jackson out of all four of the most established territories have not played any representative cricket for the West Indies. Out of 44 players. Now lets take the point further. Does anyone believe that consolidating around this group of 44 known elements is going to unearth something we do not know already?

Cozier, in his argument, brought out the margins of victory in last season?s mismatches. Very convenient for his argument that he ignores the stats this season. Because this season, the so-called powerhouses of WI cricket (except for Barbados) have struggled to overcome their opponents. Now we 'might' see closer matches between T&T and Jamaica et al, but are we going to find out anything new?

If your preference like some of the so called big picture aficionados is to see Merv Dillon bowling to Chris Gayle, will it improve Gayle as a batsman, Dillon as a bowler or just look nice and familiar to commentartors and spectators? I know where I lean. Besides, is the domestic competition there to improve players? Can it?

My feeling is that the domestic competition is a window for unveiling new possibilities to West Indies cricket. And right now when we look through the window we could as well not look because we know exactly who is there. Consolidating the competiton will not give us the ideal opportunity to find new talent and new talent is what we need. If Trinidad, with Lara, Dillon, Black, Ramnarine etc. can hardly beat Antigua, who is to say Antigua does not have anything to offer West Indies cricket?

If Guyana or Trinidad cannot score 200 vs the Rest of WIndwards, where is the perceived dominance of the Test players? Between last season and this one, the gap has already narrowed. Teams who were scoring 400 in ODI's vs these mediocre teams can barely score 200 this season.

I would take it a step further and keep the present structure for the Busta Cup as well. It is actually divisive to have the teams switch around in the same year. Either you expand or you don't.

Do Jamaica and many of the current big 4 have players who cannot make their squad, and are unknown talents? Likely. The figures show though that once one of these players strap on their pads for their country they are likely to play for a West Indies representative team so the fact is that if there is a wunderkind in these countries, the likelihood is that they will be pushed very hard (or should be).

The continuation of West Indies B will meet the aim of bringing in a generalised pool, but the overall expansion will attempt to extend the base. I would even go further and open each expansion team to an overseas player. Why? Consider the amount of players born overseas to West Indian parents. Andre Adams of New Zealand comes to mind. By actively soliciting overseas West Indian clubs to submit players of the diaspora in other countries we might just bring back a jewel.

In December, West Indies will travel to Bangladesh. I will not hear West Indies commentators like our friend Andrew Mason deriding the addition of Zimbabwe and Bangladesh to the ICC pool. Indeed we have been grateful to have teams we can beat away from home. But do not for one second believe that these teams will be stuck in a timewarp. When West Indies entered cricket, we were the whipping boys too, and yet we have provided some of the richest material for the ICC's tapestry of cricket since then. Have we not strengthened the ICC?

People like Cozier forget that when they pretend WI cricket is healthy enough to commit cricketing incest and continue using people from a pool which is pretty much exhausted, hoping that somehow they will spur each other to some magical level which few themselves have never been able to reach.

Now, if we want to build academies, we need to have more and more raw material to work with. If Expansion forces regional fans to wonder whether the big 4 are selecting the right players to compete for test places then it will serve one of the jobs it is supposed to perform.

And if it produces one new fast bowler or batsman of quality it will have paid off for all those moments of wondering why or how a certain player ended playing for the West Indies.