Tony Becca, ContributorTHE WEST Indies defeat in the Test series in England is still hurting - and it hurts even more whenever someone comes up to me and asks me to explain just what is wrong with the West Indies team.
It hurts because there are many reasons for the lack of performance by the team. It hurts because many people in the West Indies and from outside the West Indies have been attempting to explain the problems and it hurts because no-one, including the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the territorial boards, seems to be listening.
It hurts because cricket in the West Indies has reached the stage where one from another sport, one like Jack Warner from football, can be so discourteous to another sport, so insensitive to the feelings of the administrators and more so the players in another sport, that he could be bold enough to criticise the governments of the region for spending money on a sport that has contributed so much to the region but which, in his opinion, is dying.
It hurts because as talented as they may be, the players who are now representing the West Indies, most of them, are not ready to play the game at that level because they are thrown in at the deep end and because they are expected, not only to float in order to survive, but also to swim and to win.
They are nothing but lambs to the slaughter.
It hurts because the system, from theschools, through the clubs, to the first-class level, which produces the players is weak, and despite all the suggestions and the recommendations from those in the fraternity, including fans and former players, in spite of all the talk by those who administer, nothing seems to be happening to change it.
The next genius
It hurts because by selecting players with little or no performance behind them, by leaving behind a trail of one or two-Test players, by ignoring those who, for whatever reason, they thought would have been the next genius when they were first selected, by apparently throwing the dice time after time before making some selections, those selecting the players seem to have no idea what they are doing.
They seem simply to be hoping, probably even praying.
Although I never did agree with some of the selections at the time when they were made, it hurts to remember that apart from two like David Bernard and Narsingh Deonarine before his recent accusation, players like Wavell Hinds, Ryan Hinds, Omari Banks, and for whatever reason, Jermaine Lawson, have been forgotten.
It is like they never did exist.
It also hurts to see, despite what Warner believes and again for whatever reason, that cricket, still the sport of the region and for whatever reason, cannot get enough funding to look after the game at the school, club, and first-class level.
Although it is only for the one-day and the Twenty/20 series, Christopher Gayle is lucky to be the captain of the West Indies and instead of criticising the board about what transpired before he was named the captain, he should be happy.
What he said about the board, however, is gospel, and that is one of the main reasons why it hurts to talk about the problems of West Indies.
It hurts, for example, to see the board, the head of West Indies cricket, in a daily quarrel with every Tom, Dick and Harry over the simplest of things - including one with the players association over whether the Test tour to England was part of the Future Tours programme.
Looking at the Future Tours schedule which, from when it was released, had the West Indies touring England in 2011 with nothing scheduled for this year, with nothing between 2004 and 2011, it was obvious, as it was to WIPA, that was something added to the schedule.
In other words, the board should not have wasted its time and now its money in going to arbitration to decide whether it was or not.
Guilty of inefficiency
Apart from the kind of leadership which led to the problems when Brian Lara was last named as captain, when Ramnaresh Sarwan and not Daren Ganga was named as captain of the team to England, when Gayle and not Ganga was named as captain of the team for the one-day part of the tour and now over whether the West Indies should tour Zimbabwe or not, the West Indies board has been guilty of inefficiency and incompetence. Also of bad planning, of putting the horse before the cart, and as Viv Richards said recently, it is guilty even of insularity.
Like the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) which makes plans before even knowing from where the funding is coming, and because of that has to make adjustments during a competition, the West Indies board loves to plan, to announce plans before finding funding and because of that, the regional competitions, for example, change formats almost every year.
This is nothing new. This has been happening for years now, but the questions must still be asked.
How come the West Indies knew about the one-day series in England for so long, how come the selectors took so long to select the squad, and how come the three players selected as replacements did not arrive in England in time for a practice match?
Based on the performance of the stakeholders in West Indies cricket, of the board, WIPA, the selectors, the territorial boards, the fans and the players, it seems a case of the blind leading the blind, and that is why it hurts to talk about West Indies cricket; where it is and where it is going.
It seems to be going nowhere.
