WICB Playing to Yankee Dollar
To nobody's surprise, Australia defeated the West Indies in the First Test by 379 runs in three-and-a-half days. The manner of the defeat was most disappointing. The bowlers went for more than four runs an over, which is unacceptable in Test cricket.
Among the gifts were 30 no-balls and eight wides. The batsmen were dismissed twice in the space of 126 overs for a total of 339 runs. There was just one half century in the Windies' innings and 13 knocks of less than 10 runs. That hammers home the lack of quality and preparation of the players for Test cricket.
Yet, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has accepted and many of the great players of the past have welcomed the decision of Allen Stanford to pump US$28 million into the promotion of a Twenty/20 series which would see the winners of a 17-team competition walking away with US$1 million.
Can any of those teams be worth that money?
Has the intelligence of all these men been short-circuited by the electric sum of US dollars? How will this series, in any way, prepare the players in the region for cricket? Are we seeing the thin edge of a baseball bat poking its way into the Caribbean? Not for Americans the ?agony? of five days of six hours each of Test cricket.
Before the English County Championship effectively closed its doors to West Indies cricketers, it had been obvious to many of this region?s cricket administrators that something would be needed to continue the job of ?finishing? budding players to bring them up to Test level. It beacons increasingly more desperate when the last members of the Kerry Packer generation left the team and the new men found the work ethic too stringent, flexed their muscle as stars and asserted their player power on their dizzy descent to mediocrity.
Men who were brought up on depressingly low-level club cricket and the shortest first class season in the world?five matches?were thrown into the Test arena and, not surprisingly, were found deficient in many areas. As Clive Lloyd said on more than one occasion, they were learning on the job and not doing too good a job of it.
In time, it was recognised that the West Indies cricketers did not play sufficient cricket to be able to take the rigours of Test and One-Day Internationals in stride?physically or psychologically. One of the ways of overcoming that was lengthening the first-class season in the Caribbean. Consequently, the home and away tournament was at last tried?ten matches per season in line with Australia.
The benefit of such a system will not be known as, after just one season, the plan was shelved and the first-class season will be once more, one round, five matches. The reason is financial.
Has the WICB any control in the running of West Indies cricket? While the very foundation of the region?s game is rotting and rocking for lack of funds, the board has sanctioned a Twenty/20 series that will do nothing to help in the development of cricket in the region. A total of US$28 million will be frittered away on this approximation to baseball, while the real game that sees the West Indies continually defeated and even humiliated, continues to be under-prepared and not coming up to the required standard.
There is a desperate need for money to provide meaningful contracts to players who are needed for the region?s teams. There is need for money for proper coaches and coaching, especially for the young, but also, through the age groups right up to the Test teams.
How then does the WICB, responsible for the development, promotion and presentation of cricket in the region, sanctions US$28 million be spent on such a fruitless, frivolous project while the development and improvement of the game languishes?
There is the imminent ICC World Cup, less than 17 months away. The WICB is unable at the moment to contract the players who may be the defenders of the region?s honour (what?s left of it) in the event because of lack of money. In the absence of contracts, the next best thing would be to have the region?s players involved in serious cricket, both the traditional and limited overs, under the watchful eyes of high class coaches, trainers, physiotherapists, nutritionists and sports doctors.
Think of what US$28 million could do in these circumstances. Enter Mr Stanford, a businessman, whose interest is not primarily West Indies cricket. His offer may be good for his business but, in the current circumstances, it is not in the best interest of West Indies cricket to plough such funds into a Twenty/20 cricket tournament that will not improve the region?s game in any way.
Let us hope that it is not too late for the WICB to discuss the situation with Allen Stanford and to make better use of the sponsorship that is so badly needed.
* In partnership with Trinidad Guardian.