Sacking Lara Isn't the Answer

The entire region is once again in mourning at our team's second loss to England. Sometimes it is difficult for us fans to separate our emotional solutions from pragmatic ones.

The plain truth is that unlike England who prepared for this tour for three months, our team returned home from an extensive tour a few weeks before the series started.

Some of us suggested that none of our Test players participate in the Carib Cup and instead head for a camp after a few days rest, but our views were drowned out by persons in the media who felt that they should play more cricket not less and others who felt that the sponsors needs must be met. Of course, the England players (all on contracts) had no domestic distractions and concentrated on preparing for the tour since they know the meaning of losing for 36 years in the West Indies.

The simple truth is that the regional Board, national boards, clubs, communities, governments and private sector bodies have all failed to invest in cricket in our region. They all react rather than put the requisite structures and facilities in place. All will react today but what have they done to stop the rot?

The Cricket Development Committee has been introducing much needed change but it will take time to reap benefits from this new approach. Viv Richards and our other selectors have been attempting to build a pool of reserve players so that players do not become complacent and the Chairman of Selectors has been touring with the team and making demands for more power to deal with disciplinary problems.

We continue to have supporters of individual territories attack other players so that their home boys can make the team. We continue to have persons howling in the media for all manner of changes which will do more harm than good. Sadly we now have a call from one of the most disloyal of West Indian cricketers (none other than Colin Croft of rebel tour fame) for our captain to be fired.

Put simply, Lara is the one person who has delivered consistently for this team for over 12 years. Lara is not the problem. The problem is our inability to face reality and put the required structures and facilities in place so that we can hasten the development of this inexperienced team.

Our team has two players over 30 ? Lara and Jacobs, one player in his late 20s and several young inexperienced players. This is a first in West Indies cricket and this rot began between 1992 and 1995. It is time to stop the rot. Wholesale changes are not needed now. A few players may lose their places for the Barbados test but Lara must remain as captain.

West Indies started this nonsense of wholesale changes when we were still a winning team ? in 1992 and apparently various administrations have failed to realize that a team needs experience and youth and will never gel as a team with constant changes. What this meant is that most of our players had no mentors. Instead of stopping the rot, the Board has reacted to pressure from the media and fans and chopped and changed ad nauseum. This makes no sense unless we have better players. We cannot build a unit with non-stop changes.

The fact is that it is going to take time for our team to gain experience. Firing the only player with experience and the main contributor to our runs column for more than a decade will not solve our problems. Indeed it will make them worse.

What we need now is a properly organized ten-day camp in Barbados, St. Lucia, Antigua, wherever, starting next Wednesday. Many of our youngsters have flaws to work out and we need our best West Indian players to work with these individuals. We need persons to concentrate on batting, bowling, running between the wickets, taking catches, etc. It is hard to expect 20 and 22-year-olds not to make rash shots but they will have to learn and learn quickly. If they fail, others in the pool can take their places while they correct their flaws.

What this region needs is to unite around our captain so that he is not under unnecessary pressure and his runs can flow. Rational fans know that without runs from Lara, things will get even worse. Only the uninformed believe the captaincy has affected Lara's runs since only Sobers has a better batting average as captain than Lara. Indeed Lara had his best year in Test cricket last year. What is affecting Lara are the non-stop attacks from persons with their own agendas.

What this region needs is for the President of the WICB and the Chairman of Selectors to call a press conference and tell the people of this region that they are united behind our captain and that we are attempting to build a pool of players that can compete with the rest of the world. They need to tell this region that patience is required and that Lara will not be the scapegoat here. They need to publicly admit that our cricketers were not properly prepared for this series and they need to announce the date and time for that camp.

What we need right now is to support our team and put in place some urgent remedial work so that they can attempt to win the next two tests and hold on to some pride before we face England in England.

What we don't need is more confusion. Lara stays as captain. The time has come for all stakeholders to become men. More importantly, they need to keep their heads when all about are losing theirs and blaming it on Brian Lara.

* Dr Christine Cummings is a Lecturer in the Department of Government, UWI, Mona. Among her courses are Sports, Politics and Society and Media and Sport. Her primary area of research is The Politics of West Indies Cricket.

If

If you can keep your head
when all about you are losing theirs
And blaming it on you.
If you can trust yourself
when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too.

If you can dream and not make dreams your master.
If you can think and not make thoughts your aim.
If you can meet with triumph and disaster.
And treat those two impostors just the same.
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken
And stoop and build'em up with worn out tools.

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch and toss
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss.

If you can force your heart, and nerve, and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone
And so "hold on" when there is nothing on you
except the will which says to them "hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue
Or walk with kings, nor lose the common touch.
If neither foe nor loving friend can hurt you.
If all men count with you ... but none too much.

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
with sixty seconds worth of distant run.
Yours is the earth, and everything that's in it.
And which is more ... You'll be a Man, my son.

-- Rudyard Kipling