Unproductive West Indies cricket

Tue, Nov 30, '21

WHAT makes a cricket team perform poorly? The main reason is that they discharged the functions of their responsibilities worse than their opponents. And why did they not produce better? That is where the secret of playing sport lies. What is the secret? Understanding the game and its art and using one’s love for the sport and one’s ability to be the best one can be. Some will love cricket more than others and players will decide early in their lifetimes whether they want to pursue their future in cricket by aiming for international status, winning kudos for brilliance or they may rather not sacrifice the time or effort as their ambition lies elsewhere.

When Brian Lara was fourteen, I was the cricket coach at Fatima College. During a practice session one afternoon in early 1984 he asked me, “how come the world’s highest individual Test score of 365 not out held by Sir Garfield Sobers and scored since 1958, still stands? Why hasn’t anyone broken that record yet?”

I explained to the youngster that conditions of the game and the state of the pitch have to be present for a batsman to have the time, plus he will need the ambition and the ability to bat all those hours. He said to me with a shy smile, “I’ll beat that record”. I replied that it was a nice ambition to have and good luck, with a smile on my face. Even at that age, his talent shone through and I had already tagged him to play Test cricket. But to score more than 365 in a single innings? Not likely, I thought.

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