Blame WICB for On-field Failures
I have said it before and I will say it again, the current state of West Indies cricket has little to do with the players who represent with the regional team. Rather, I believe that the blame lies with the administrators of the West Indian game and their indifference towards the total success of the team.
Management (of a lack thereof) is inept within the regional teams and is blatantly evident within the regional senior team. The West Indies board seems intent on making money as opposed to developing the cricket, electing board officials who are too far removed from the game to appreciate the impact of the what the pathetic excuse of a West Indies team is having on the psyche of West Indians.
The lack of vision in the regional game is astounding. Insularity is a cancer which is eating away at the soul of the West Indian people and while each board speaks about it, none is willing to be big enough and endorse players from other territories in an attempt to further the West Indian cause.
OK, so what was I thinking when I said ?the current state of West Indies cricket has little to do with the players who represent the regional team?? My reasons are thus; The regional 4-day tournament (Carib Beer, Red Stripe??) in whatever it's recent incarnation is definitely not up to mark. The standard of cricket is appalling and this is highlighted by the lack of interest shown by regional ?fans? where attendance at games can be described as laughable. Yet, this is the criteria used to judge our up and coming players and eventually leads to their introduction to international cricket.
The West Indies board does not seem to have a genuine interest in improving the standard of cricket in the Caribbean often using the excuse of ?limited resources? as a reason why nothing gets done. The hierarchy of West Indies cricket is definitely to blame for this. There has been no strategic plan to develop regional cricket and reestablish the West Indies team as a dominant force on the international stage. Instead, the current administration seems content on allowing the team to continue its decomposition until there may be no team at all...where we may reach a stage when individual territories decide to break away to seek their own interests.
It does not take a genius to tell you that the current crop of West Indian cricketers lacks professionalism. This is in part due to their lack of exposure to the English county scene where it seems that the West Indian players are no longer in demand. Instead of attempting to establish a more professional regional tournament and inculcate a culture of professionalism among regional players, the WICB has done nothing to address this issues rather leaving the responsibility on the shoulders of the individual territories, thereby confirming the mentality of ?divided we stand? which is in essence a management issue.
Not only is it important to create this culture of professionalism within the regional game, but it is imperative that the regional 4-day tournament is scheduled when the senior West Indian players are at home. There is no doubting that the presence of Lara, Chanderpaul and Sarwan would test the mettle of the current crop of bowlers in the region while Lawson, Edwards, Collymore and co would tell the selectors all they need to know about the up and coming batsmen.
What the selectors have done (and lets give them credit) is in developing the West Indies B-team as an additional first class team and inviting a representative A-team from an overseas territory to participate in our regional tournament. However, the WICB must be careful in spreading the talent pool too thin and this B-team must be managed very carefully.
A former player must be entrusted with lets say a 3 year tenure of the team to help develop the players. Additionally, the visiting A-teams should be given minimum requirements to meet in order to participate in the regional tournament, whereby a minimum of 4 players in the starting eleven in every game must have at least test experience. These are all steps which should be put in place with the view of improving the standard of regional cricket. However, even with its attempts to develop the B-team, the WICB has ignored the Windward Island team who continue to be the worst team at the regional level, why is this?
Another area where the WICB has fallen down badly is in the standard of regional wickets and the lack of first class facilities at each territory. What has happened to our regional wickets?!? Guyana is hopeless, Trinidad is always up and down where no one knows what to expect, Jamaica is docile and unpredictable as well, Barbados - can someone tell me where the pace has gone?, Antigua - probably is the best wicket in the territory. This needs to be addressed today and measures put in place whereby regional wickets are good for the bowler and batsmen, where the bounce is true and regional players can easily adapt to surfaces in Australia and South Africa.
Planning seems to be missing from every facet of the West Indian game and this is highlighted even further by the plight of the team on the current tour of South Africa where it seems that no attention was paid to history and we continue to make the same mistakes over and over. The resources available to the WICB is astounding...the wealth of talent and expertise which we contain surpasses that of all our rivals even Australia, so why is this not used?
If the WICB is ever to get serious about OUR game (not THEIRS!!!) and decide to use our former greats to help the regional team then of course money will be an issue. Professionals must be paid well and, given the history of the WICB, money woes is always the excuse. Sir Gary Sobers can be used to help our batsmen, Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes could be used to develop our openers, Jeffery Dujon and Deryck Murray could work with the wicketkeepers, Michael Holding, Joel Garner, Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose could develop the fastbowlers and Lance Gibbs the spinners. Why are these resources not being used???!!!
Similarly, cricketing minds such as Rohan Kanhai and Sir Vivian Richards must be incorporated into the grand scheme of things at the decision making level. Of course this means that the WICB would have to relinquish control over many areas of the team and of course these greedy politicians would never do anything which does not benefit them directly even if it is in the best interest of the West Indian game.
In closing, the WICB needs to stop treating the West Indies game as a product, which it is hopelessly trying to sell to the local and international public, and rather treat the game with the respect which it is due. Build the game and the public will come! Unfortunately, this era of West Indian cricket is synonymous with corruption and insularity, let?s hope that the damage done does not destroy our cricket but can serve as a catalyst to rid our region of inept management and replace it with dynamic cricket oriented administrators!