Coach King On The Right Track
When I bought my house it had an ugly old crabapple tree in the front yard. It had once been quite a nice specimen but the previous owners had neglected it badly. My neighbours all recommended that I cut it down and plant a new one. On the surface that seemed like the only option, but I quickly realised that I would be looking at a decade or more before I would have anything of value.
Looking at the old tree, I could see that there were many healthy young branches that could be pruned and trained. Some of the main branches were still in good shape, and just needed a little attention. There were also some older branches that were obviously destined for firewood. Clearly, I was going to need a long term strategy to restore this tree to a place of pride on my front lawn.
Bennett King must know how I felt. Faced with the challenge of bringing glory back to West Indies cricket, he must have realised that there is no magic fairy dust that he could sprinkle over the team and turn them into a world class cricket team in a few weeks. Things have gone neglected for so long that some long term strategic thinking is required. Like me, King does not have the option of starting from scratch, it would simply take too long.
My first steps were to identify which of the many promising shoots would be the first to encourage to grow where I needed them. Rather than risk irreparable damage to the tree by immediately cutting off all the old branches I knew were going nowhere, I started by selecting a few that had new growth ready to grow into their space. These I sawed off close to the trunk, and treated with anti-fungal paint. I used a special fertilizer to stimulate root growth. A late spring ice storm snapped branches and stripped leaves but I stuck to it. My neighbours smirked at the ugly thing with bare patches standing in my front yard.
The new West Indies head coach and chief selector quickly recognised the general lack of fitness in the West Indies team and immediately put the players through an arduous training regimen. He brought an intensity to fielding exercises that has paid immediate dividends. Seeing that there was no stable opening partner for Chris Gayle he committed to blooding Xavier Marshall in the one day matches and returning Devon Smith to the Test side. Experienced if unspectacular veterans Reon King and Courtney Browne were retained, presumably to add stability to the side while the new players were grafted into the team.
By the next spring, my crabapple was still lopsided, but on the whole was looking much more like the tree I wanted. Most of the new growth had filled in the gaps, although I had to prune off a few of the shoots that I thought were keepers but turned out to be duds. I was able to remove more deadwood, as the previous year's shoots were now strong young branches and didn't need the shelter of the ugly older limbs anymore. Importantly, I resisted the temptation to indulge in mid-season pruning, and gave my choices the full growing season before I reviewed my decisions.
Any calls for Bennett King's head over the selection and retention of experienced players who have not performed to expectations, and the criticism that there is no forward movement, are unwarranted. No longer can we claim regional bias, when the man most responsible for selection has no local affiliation. Clearly King is working to a plan, something that it is not at all clear was done in the past, and that plan obviously does not involve either big or small islandism.
While we are still a ways from the proverbial corner, there are clear signs of systemic improvement in the fitness of the players and the standard of fielding. The wholesale chop and change that we have seen over the past 10 years after every loss seems to be a thing of the past, and it appears that players like Devon Smith and Dwayne Bravo will get the long term opportunity to develop into the quality players they could become. The bowling and wicketkeeping remains a liability, and it is fair to assume that it is here that King will next train his focus as the batting and fielding begin to settle.
Three years later, my crabapple may still not be the nicest on my street, but my neighbours certainly aren't laughing anymore. In fact, just a few weeks ago the lady across the street commmented on how nice it looked covered in spring blooms. My tree is the basic shape I want, and I'm now in maintenance mode. Each spring I trim a few branches that got broken over the winter and prune others to grow in their places. Because the tree is healthy, these small changes have no significant effect on the growth of the tree as a whole, and the new shoots grow quickly and fill out nicely in the shelter of the more established branches. Two more years of growth and it will compare favourably with any on my street.
When Bennett King completes his term, West Indies fans should expect to have a competitive outfit with a solid core of players and a good stock of up and coming talent ready to step up and take an opportunity when it comes their way. It is unlikely that they will be quite at the level of the team of the eighties, but they should be able to win their share of matches and series, and make the opposition work for theirs. If this is the legacy Bennett King leaves the West Indies, he will have been a resounding success.