Nothing pretty in pink about latest West Indies' woes

While Cricket Australia's immediate focus is on next month's home Test series against New Zealand, and the historic introduction of the pink ball, it's a team that was once clad in pink that has some local officials nervous.
The once mighty West Indies are again in turmoil, this time after coach Phil Simmonds, the former hard-hitting allrounder, was suspended over his criticism of the squad picked for the imminent one-day series of Sri Lanka.
Simmonds, who helped guide the Caribbean islands to a 1-1 Test series result against England earlier this year, was stood down for declaring he had not been given the "best 50-over ODI squad" and faces a disciplinary hearing.
While the ugly side of Caribbean cricket politics is nothing new, that the West Indies are due to play in three Tests in Australia this summer, including the showcase Tests from Boxing Day in Melbourne and New Year's day in Sydney, makes this latest round of trouble particularly worrying.

Can West Indies recover from 15 years of gloom?

If you have been to a cricket match in the Caribbean, you will know what we are talking about.

Rambunctious fans pack the stands, or the banks, in their thousands, swaying to a rhythm of their own, beating drums or blowing horns, and occasionally screaming advices to visiting batsmen and bowlers.

That vibrant atmosphere is unique to West Indies cricket fans and Clive Lloyd, captain of their hugely successful team of the late 1970s and 1980s, described it beautifully in Simon Lister’s Fire in Babylon, a book inspired by the documentary of the same title.

Lloyd recalled leaning on his bat at the non-striker’s end during the Test match at The Oval “and inhaling the exuberant buzz that only a West Indian cricket crowd far from home can create”.

He asked: “How could we not try and do our best?”

Sadly, that question is not being asked often in West Indies cricket these days. Few in the establishment or the team actually seem to care about the fans these days as they — officials and cricketers with bloated egos — fight their battles out in the open.

Fans, who once wrote calypsos eulogising their magnificent cricketers, can only shrug their shoulders as tours are cut short due to player strikes and vengeful officials rule with a heavy hand, clamping down on anyone who refuses to toe their line.

Selectors didn’t want to be embarrassed

As controversy continues to embroil West Indies cricket with the latest saga concerning the suspension of coach Phil Simmons, news coming to hand is that the three selectors who did not support the return of Dwayne Bravo and Keiron Pollard did not want to be embarrassed by supporting their return because of the reason they were dropped in the first place.

Simmons now faces a WICB-appointed human resources committee because of the comments he made concerning the continued snubbing of Bravo and Pollard. As the West Indies team arrived in Sri Lanka on Thursday, Simmons was not there as Eldine Baptiste, one of the selectors who did not support the players return, was with the team as coach.

A West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) official explained to Guardian Media that the selectors Baptiste, Courtney Walsh and Courtney Browne were concerned about selecting the two players after the reasons they were dropped in the first place.

‘WI cricket captains must approve who goes into battle with him’

Captains of industry and sports must lead with great energy, guile and foresight, requisitioning useful instruments while planning results, also surrounding themselves with personnel who should positively effect that hoped-for successful future! Simple, really!

Why then, in present West Indies cricket, are none of our teams’ captains allowed votes in selecting players that they will lead, as was present in the past, while coaches do have that luxury?

Surely captains must, by gut feelings or evidence, as illustrated for WI’s Fidel Edwards or Pakistan’s Shoaib Aktar; captains’ picks by Brian Lara and Wasim Akram respectively; know whom they want in their teams.

To quote Pope Francis: “Power is a fleeting thing; here today, gone tomorrow. It is important to do ‘good’ with that power; to serve in the humblest of ways!”

The great irony here is that present chief WI selector Clive Lloyd, while leading an acclaimed cricket team, thankfully including yours truly, demanded that vote: “I am given this task of leading WI teams. Therefore I must have my vote as to whom I trust to be out there with me. Ultimately, I am responsible for producing good performances from those players on the field.”

Simmons asks for more time

Suspended West Indies cricket coach Phil Simmons was due to meet with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) today in Antigua to answer to them over his public outburst over the exclusion of Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo but the meeting will not come off as planned.

Guardian Media understands that Simmons has asked for some time before facing the WICB appointed Human Resource committee. Simmons was suspended last Monday after he alleged that there was “outside interference” in the selection process when it came to Bravo and Pollard.

Simmons, who is currently in England, made the comments at the end of the West Indies cricket team camp in Barbados last week. He said that “outside interference” in the selection process seems to have kept out the duo because he and chairman of selectors Clive Lloyd both wanted the two Red Force players back into the One Day International (ODI) team for the series of Sri Lanka. He added that Lloyd and himself were outvoted 3-2 by the other selectors, Courtney Walsh, Courtney Browne and Eldine Baptiste.

the Trinidad Guardian has the full article