What Happened to the Aussie Coach?

(Barbados Advocate)

So it has finally dawned upon Carl Hooper that his presence in the West Indies cricket team was denying a young talent the opportunity to play.

My only problem with ?Hoops? facing reality was his timing. I would have figured that after being informed that he was being sacked as the captain, then the correct thing to do was to ask not to be selected and not wait ?til he was included in the squad and then pull out at the last minute. But then again he has done it more than once in the past. Either that or, because of the absence of Sarwan, hold on in the team and then quit after the Australia tour.

Then another thing is this coach of the West Indies team. One minute we was hearing that a Mr. Bennett King from Australia was to be we new coach, all he had to do was do some housekeeping and he should be in the West Indies in a couple of months. Next minute we was hearing that Mr. King say he ain?t coming ?bout here that he stopping in Australia and do he thing to keep Australia cricket on top.

Which lead me to ask, did Mr. King ever apply for the job in the first place or did somebody get on a phone and offer him the job? ?Cause I believe once you get pen and paper and apply for a job then you serious ?bout it. Another question I want to ask is if the West Indies Cricket Board get back raised by somebody in Australia?

I want to know if after the Reverend Wes Hall announce that King was the new coach, if somebody in Australia offer him piece more money ? a offer that he couldn?t refuse ? to stop in Australia.

Now I personally ain?t got no problem with a foreign coach. So long as we ain?t hiring foreigners to teach Bajans how to stir cou-cou then I ain?t got no problem with a fellow from over in away coming to the West Indies if we believe he or she is the best around.

?Cause I don?t subscribe to this theory that because you was a great West Indies cricketer you should automatically be a good coach, so therefore you should be coach of the West Indies.

If you look at the top sportsmen around the world, Tiger Woods, Andre Agassi, the Williams sisters, you would realise that to be on top they have coaches but the coaches were never big name players, in some cases the coaches was mummy and daddy.

What we fail to realise is that you must have some kinda talent to make the coach?s job a lot easier. We shouldn?t have to wait ?til a fellow get in the West Indies team, then to fly a man from Australia to teach him how to catch a ball. There is a difference between a coach and a teacher and we does get confused with the two.

Anyhow, the first Test on the way, so I wish the boys the best of luck. When I started writing this column we had lost one wicket, now as I typing we lost five and the score ain?t 60 yet, so I going make haste and finish before we get bowl out. I also honestly believe that because of some of the poor umpiring decisions we does get that we should be allowed 15 players to help balance out them bad decisions.

Well I still following this Iraq war, and I learning a good few lessons from Bush and them boys. When this war or invasion first start it was to disarm Saddam, then midway I hear it was to free the Iraq people.

Then we hearing ?bout the coalition forces, which is basically Bush boys, Blair boys and ?bout six Australian soldiers, but them using the word coalition to make it seem as though this a United Nations thing.

Then to legitimise the invasion we hearing ?bout ?pre- emptive strike?. In other words, that is something the bad boys ?bout here was doing for years it is only that we ain?t had no word to describe it.

For instance, if a fellow look at you too hard and you ain?t like the way how he look at you, especially if you believe he got a cutlass in his pants hiding, then, according to Bush, you have all right to attack him first. You call that a pre-emptive strike. And if while attacking the man, an innocent bystander get hit by you, then according to Bush you call that collateral damage. Don?t you just love it? See ya.

* Eric Lewis is a columnist for the Barbados Advocate. He can be reached via e-mail at madderic@hotmail.com.