Wes Hall Unplugged

In his capacity as president of the West Indies Cricket board, Rev. Wes Hall has found himself faced with a series of challenges, formidable and complex. But with the same enthusiasm with which he played his cricket, Rev. Hall has attacked the problems.

He is a man constantly on the move, from island to island and continent to continent. Slowing down for just a bit for this interview, he discusses some of the more pressing issues in West Indies cricket in his own inimitable style...

I'm 65 years old. And if you are the wrong side of 50, one has to be very careful. But as far as I know, I'm very healthy. But I will say this, when you become president of the West Indies Board, you also represent the West Indies on the ICC.

I went at a time where I found that a lot of things needed remedial actions. We went straight into the (MIke) Denness (match referee) issue (in India), there is the doping issue, there is security at grounds?I am the chairman of that steering commitee. We have moved financial headquarters to the south of France and meetings sometimes have to be there..The ICC meets four times a year, it meets all over the world. Then there are committee meetings.....So yes, I've been flying a lot. I don't know if it's worn me out but I'm a lot more tired than when I took up the job.



When you did take up the job, you mentioned a number of things you wanted to achieve. At this point in time, how far along is WI cricket in achieving those goals?

My mission statement was really to reconstruct the cricketing architecture so that we will reach the heights of the 1960s, the 80s and to the mid-90s and that our cricketers should really be able to fit perfectly into the pantheon of the great cricketing icons of the past. That is still our goal.

Fortunately, I think that the selectors in the West Indies and indeed the board have gone on the development programme where the youngsters have been given a chance. Of course, 40 years ago, you could have afforded to give youngsters a chance along with the older players, the tours were few and far between...Nowadays, what we are finding is that we introduce a cadre of very young, cricketers, very immature at the time and then found that they were being thrown to the lions....I think that a cricketer's education (today) is more or less on him in a twinkling of an eye, whereas before, you did have a little time to assert one's self in terms of the rudiments of the game.

Nowadays with technology, if one team knows your fault, everyone knows. So I'm saying to you that yes, we have had a situation where our youngsters have had to mature in alien conditions. In a way it's good because I think that we are going to see, especially in our batting, the benefits of it pretty soon.



You maintain that the cricket is turning around, why exactly do you say that given the fact that the WI team up to this recent Test series has lost badly?

Garth, I have every confidence in the West Indies team, I'll tell you why. Nobody is pushing us around or has ever pushed us around on West Indian wickets. The great Australia came here two years ago and (Brian) Lara alone pushed them back. South Africa came here and we were competitive. Funny enough, we have not been competitive against anybody away from home. We probably have lost 25 out of maybe 30, I know you would say that.

Our supine surrender in the World Cup and many of our woeful performances away from home have been highlighted. But two weeks' later (in India) we beat them. India came here and we beat them in the Test matches and then they completely annihilated us on their spinning wickets...Now in the one-days you are not going to prepare the spinning wickets because your spinners could only bowl 10 overs each and for the enjoyment of the game, you go on the flatter wickets and we are going to be difficult to beat whenever that happens.

Our batting line-up when you really look at it, I mean, the youngsters like Gayle and Hinds and Sarwan and Samuels, when you put that together with Lara, and Hooper and Chanderpaul, I'm saying to you that with a matured 22-year-old, 23, 24 in a year or two, I think we have a serious batting line-up.

We've never had a scarcity of talent. Man for man we've got the best talent in the world, there's no doubt about it. But when it came to work ethic and it came to discipline, I think that we have always fallen a little short.



Are you confident that the crop of youths that you spoke about will show that maturity?

Absolutely,! Absolutely yes! I am very sure of that.



Why are you so sure?

I am sure because most of the guys that have come on are ones that had little technical faults. You will tell me that Gayle doesn't move his feet, Hinds moves across the wicket a bit too early, young Hinds from Barbados, he is also hitting a bit across. But he didn't start his career doing that. You get the turning ball and fellows get into tangles. And I'm saying to you that our young men will only learn...Why I say they are going to learn? They are beginning to put together scores.

Talent doesn't win the NBA, it doesn't win world championships either. But knowing how to win and having a matured approach is what really brings home the bacon. It also takes discipline and in recent years we've had numerous incidents of indiscipline.



Is that a major problem in WI cricket?

When I managed the WI team in 1985, the team was full of icons and I didn't have a problem with discipline. Ten years later (England 1995) I saw the difference. We are living in a different age, an age of globalisation and trade liberalisation and we have to adapt to world changing conditions or we perish. That is on the economic field. But also in the sporting arena, you find that we have changed a lot also and young people are coming in with different ideas and what you need to do, you need to be in a position where you stamp out the indiscipline. But to discipline you see, is a corrective measure in my opinion. It is not necessarily to get rid of people. Whom the Lord loves, he chastens, that is my position.



Has the WI cricket board handled the disciplining/correction process in the right way. Why is the problem persisting?

It is the age in which we live. Perhaps you don't hear about other countries. Today, as we speak the New Zealand cricketers are refusing to play and do anything. I'm not saying that is indiscipline. I'm saying they too have their problems. and what they do, rather than act it out alone, they probably think a cohesive force with an idea is more beneficial than one man taking up the cudgels. The biggest thing is to recognise the problem. We've recognised it.



Don't you feel the process of disciplining has been too slow whatever the approach?

There is a possibility that it could have been.



Is it unfair to ask the WICB to rectify the discpline of the youngsters when it could be a wider problem in the society?

I don't know if the WI board has the capacity to solve the problems of youth. This is a rapacious age, an age of crime and social disorder, an age of envy and indiscipline and selfishness.....This is not an age of the 50s and the 60s. This is a serious age....Whereas I do not wish to condemn anyone, I do think that what we need to do is to look at the situation and do whatever is possible to alleviate the problems as they come.



Finance. How would you describe the financial state of the WICB?

Oh, what I wanted to tell you is that many years ago when the West Indies decided that they'll go into television rights and things like that, they recognised that on our scarce resources, we would have a cash flow problem and we would have to borrow. What we have done, we have borrowed money to facilitate the efforts portrayed in the plan. And therefore, it's just like any business, if you have a cash flow problem, you'll borrow to faciltate those plans, the strategic plan rather.

And in a strategic plan, you do three things: you prioritise, you cost and you implement. So having prioritised, there are many things that we would like to do and can't do because we haven't got the money to do it. This has come about because our revenue streams have been depleted....We used to be able to get guarantees and go into lucrative tours to England and Australia. But the ICC on a 9-1 vote, voted on the Future Tours programme and the avenues we had to get extra cash are all blocked.

Bangladesh and Zimabwe, they get the same money out of a tour that we do. The other thing you have to understand is that you make money when you have a home tour and you are able to sell the TV rights back to the country that is visiting you...But even Australia, even South Africa, marginal. We don't make money against those tours. And talk about the others like Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, we lose well over US$300,000-US$450,000 every time we play against them.



How do you rectify that?

We can't! There is no way we can rectify that because there is a Future Tours programme with 10 competing nations and we only make money against two (England and India).



So will WI cricket always be in the red?
No, not necessarily. We have to encourage and forge strategic linkages which help us. Now the World Cup in 2007, we need to make that work.



How crucial is the World Cup to the WICB's financial future?

Very crucial. One-hundred-million dollars as projected must be crucial to an economy like ours.



What about the internal running of the WICB. Within the last year you have lost people in senior positions. How has that affected the stability of the organisation?

When that happens, as long as you get people very well qualified to do the job, you'll be better off. We are very satisfied with our CFO (Barry Thomas) and our CME (Roger Braithwaite) who are very qualified managers.



Are you satisfied with the way the ex-players are being utilised?

Yes. Sir Gary Sobers has been in the mentoring programme. Sir Viv Richards is the chairman of selectors. In the last week we've had Kenny Benjamin (Keith) Arthurton and (Reon) King in the Level 2 coaching. I'd like to see some of them come on and do the accelerated programme in umpiring.



Is the Caribbean society too insular to make all of this work?

I would be a falsifier of veracity to say that there is not some measure of insularity in West Indian circles. But look, I've lived to see Test matches playing in territories where no local player is playing and the match has gone on. I think we are getting a more matured type of spectator who undertsands fully that it's not going to benefit West Indian cricket if we carry insular tendencies into the game.



But do the people who have to do the actual managing and coaching and administration buy into that?

Yes, they'll buy into it when they recognise that that is our position. If it is the policy of the board that that is what we will do, well they will either buy into it or they will leave.



When this term ends, do you see yourself continuing?

Well Garth, I never really had any intentions nor ambitions of being president of West Indian cricket. I believe right now, and I honestly mean this, that I am the only one from the proletariat that has ever achieved the presidency.

What that means to me is that there are a lot of people that when I fail, they feel as if they failed....When I became the president, there was a lot of acrimony in the circles of the board and I was asked to come in. I prayed about it, and what happened was, the answer I got was yes, I should go on...

People tell me I'm on a honeymoon. You can't be on a honeymoon for 17 months. What they have failed to see is that the discord that permeated the board and which also permeates the territorial boards, that is no longer evident...But to answer your question, when I get to that stage and I get on my knees and I get that answer, I'll do whatever the answer I get to the question.



In your heart of hearts, do you feel the WI society can solve its cricket problems?

That is the easiest thing in the world. As long as the team wins. There is nothing like that indomitable spirit that West Indian people have had. There is nothing like the passion that only I believe religion has got that is greater than the passion that we feel for our team. Yes, the West Indians are there waiting to turn on to the team. There is nothing that some victories would not cure.

I feel that as long as we keep the faith, as long as our youngsters emulate the great cricketers of the past, with good performances on the field, I think that our people will rally behind them as David Rudder said. What a song! Rally round the West Indies. We will play that song every hour of the day when we start to win.

I feel that the day is coming soon. I'm not saying we are going to win the World Cup. But I'll tell you this Garth, we are going to be in there till the last game.

* This interview first appeared in the Trinidad Express.