We Can Do Better

If we assume that West Indies cricket is at, or near, its lowest ebb, we can gird up our loins and not only pledge to do better, but actually do better.

There will be no easy or quick fixes but we can make a start. Until the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) is abolished and/or reconstituted, as it must be sooner or later, the sooner the better, it is they, regrettably, to whom we must look to do the right thing.

There is no question that to claw our way back to the top, we have to create, eventually, in the West Indies, the environment, the professionalism, the training, practice, physical, technical and mental conditioning, that English county cricket provided for the invincible West Indies. That much is certain. For it is not talent nor natural ability that is lacking in the West Indies. It is the inability to transform this talent into the stuff of which champions are made.

But here is what we can do now, immediately:

A head coach with complete authority for the performance of the team must be appointed. He MUST have the necessary credentials for the job. If he does not, you can just as well stop right here, and pack it in, for we are doomed at the outset.

THE NEED TO FIND THE RIGHT PERSON, THE COACH, TO LEAD WEST INDIES CRICKET INTO THE FUTURE, CANNOT BE OVER-STATED NOR OVER-EMPHASIZED.

The WICB must have no part whatsoever in the selection and preparation of the Test team. This will be the prerogative solely of the coach, the coach, the coach alone, and no one else but the coach.

The coach must have two assistant coaches of his choosing, a batting coach and a bowling coach, both full-time.

The coach will also appoint a full time iron-fisted trainer, with impeccable credentials, whose job it will be to put the team through the necessary exercises and drills so as to bring them to the peak of physical fitness. Here, we would hark back to the days when the West Indies team rightly earned the description of panthers on the prowl, consummately fit, the fittest team in all of cricket, agile, alert, and deadly. We note in passing, that fitness does not require talent. It comes from busting your gut.

The coach must also have at his disposal, but only as necessity warrants it, for now, the services of a doctor, physiotherapist, and psychologist.

The captain will be appointed by the coach, to carry out the on-field strategy that the coach would have previously determined with his assistants, one of whom is the captain.

The coach will also appoint a Panel of Experts, comprising experienced and accomplished batsmen and bowlers, around six in all (from say, Richards, Sobers, Kanhai, Greenidge, Dujon, Roberts, Holding, Walsh, Garner). The responsibility of this panel will be to make observations on the players by attending matches and practice sessions, and from watching video tapes, and to determine any remedial intensive work that may be required.

Members of the panel would serve on a volunteer unpaid basis, but would be paid expenses (travel, accommodation, per diem) for their services to cricket. The expenses incurred by the Panel would need to be carefully managed so as not to become excessive. Hence extensive use of videotape would be made.

In this way, and by artifice, we will be able to infuse West Indies cricket with the wealth of knowledge and experience that is our dormant and neglected legacy, at little cost. At the same time, the criticism would be obviated, that our great cricketers of the past are lacking in the interpersonal skills which would make them great mentors.

We note in passing that one of the lamentable tragedies of West Indies cricket is that most, if not all, of the wealth of knowledge and experience built up over many decades, is completely squandered on account of the way cricket is run.

Coach, Assistant Coaches, Trainer, and the Panel of Experts should meet on a frequent basis to evaluate the players, PARTICULARLY THEIR FAILINGS, and to determine any remedial intensive work that may be required. Indeed, members of the panel might be assigned to work with a player to correct particular flaws.

The roster of players will comprise some 20-25 full time contracted players. Players may be dropped from the roster, others added, at the sole discretion of the Coach. Under normal circumstances, however, and as it befits a competent Coach, the Assistant Coaches, the Trainer and Panel of Experts would be consulted and their views given due weight, respect, and consideration.

The Coach, Assistant Coaches, Trainer, Players, would all be housed in the same facility, "under the same roof". The daily routine would be patterned on a military operation, up at 6:00A, to bed at 10:00P, with the a full day's schedule of class-room, physical training, batting, bowling, fielding practice, and such. Clearly, anyone unable to withstand such regimentation could not be part of the West Indies team. Here again we hark back to the days when, for the invincible Windies, "cricket was war".

So, therefore, these measures would resemble the intense training in use at the Academy, but now, they would be used on a protracted basis, to condition the test team, till other more permanent measures were implemented.

All these things can be done IMMEDIATELY, and will start paying dividends IMMEDIATELY. For a start, the players would be made to realize that the days of slackness, indiscipline, nonchalance, gutlessness, mental weakness, and all those intangibles that characterize the syndrome of failure, are now in the past. With the dawn of the new day comes a new outlook and a new resolve to become champions by dint of commitment and hard work.

I will guarantee that the next time the test team goes out, West Indians for whom cricket is an integral part of their lives, will raise their eyes for the bottom of the chasm of despair and begin to look upwards. To the skies, maybe?

It will take money, yes, but if we want to play in the big league with the big boys, and show them the stuff of which we are made, we will have to make the required INVESTMENT.

But even before that, the WICB and the powers that be, must make a determination as to whether West Indies cricket is to be rescued from its ignominious descent into the depths of inconsequence and irrelevance.

While these provisions could be thought of as emergency short-term measures, they would nonetheless jibe quite seamlessly into the longer term structure and organization of West Indies cricket.