Come again, Mr President - don't blame it all on the players
published:
Sunday | July 6, 2008
Tony Becca: FROM THE BOUNDARY
WEST INDIES Cricket Board (WICB) president Julian Hunte, the man who has a habit of writing letters to the manager and captain of the West Indies team before a series and telling them how talented and brilliant the members of the team are, has finally seen the light and has come out swinging.
According to the former politician and leader of St. Lucia's opposition, Hunte has described West Indies cricket as being in a crisis and in need of help.
Speaking in Dubai a few days ago, after Australia had comfor-tably won the three-match Test series against the West Indies 2-0 and were leading the five-match one-day series 3-0 after easy victories, Hunte did not mix words. He said that the West Indies, ranked number eight out of 10 for a long, long time, had better start winning against higher-ranked opponents or they will end up in the second division, in a special category, along with the likes of Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.
under pressure
Lest it is not known, the International Cricket Council is under pressure to have two categories of Test cricket - one for the six top teams and one for the others, for teams like the West Indies, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, etc.
According to the president, everyone involved in West Indies cricket must come together in an effort to lift the standard of the game in the region, and none more so than the players, who, according to him, are the third highest paid cricketers in the world - behind those of England and Australia.
According to Hunte, payment and performance must be closely linked.
According to Hunte, the technical skills of the players need to be improved, the players need to be more competitive and the pool of talent has to be widened. He also said there has to be an increase in the amount of cricket played, and probably remembering that after three Test matches and four one-day matches the West Indies have used 21 players, some of whom had no right in a West Indies team, there has to be a "clearly stated and objective selection philosophy".
According to Hunte, he is going to ask the team management and coach John Dyson how they plan to improve the skills of the players and how they plan to make them competitive.
Remembering that the team must be selected from the territories of the West Indies and that there is obviously no way to widen the pool of talent, that Dyson is the coach of the West Indies team and not the WI coach with responsi-bility for the development of cricketers in the West Indies, Hunte will be wasting his time if he goes that way.
As Hunte has said, the skills of the players need to be improved - and improved a lot at that. The players also need to be competitive - and very competitive at that, and the only way that will happen is if the president and his board realise that, accept it, and then do what needs to be done.
skills
The improvement of skills - the skills to play good fast bowling well, to play good spin bowling well, to bat on different kinds of pitches well, and to bat in different conditions well, takes time.
The development of a competitive spirit - to know when to attack and when to defend, to work the ball around for singles, takes time, and the only way to improve one's skills and to develop a level of competitiveness is to start in the schools.
Then it should go on through the clubs and then, on the way to the West Indies team, end up at the first-class level with Jamaica, Barbados, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, the Leeward Islands and the Windward Islands involved in return matches with each team playing 10 matches per season.
While an academy would be good, it cannot be, as some believe, the salvation for West Indies cricket and it cannot be for two reasons.
One is the insularity in the West Indies which, for example, would see not the best being invited but instead, for a peaceful life, two apiece from Jamaica, Barbados, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, the Leeward Islands and the Windward Islands and, probably, even two from Montserrat and two from Dominica.
Two is the fact that nothing that lasts is built from the top.
The players, without a doubt, have to share the responsibility for what has happened to West Indies cricket over the past 13 years or so, and there can be no question about that.
As the body elected to run West Indies cricket, however, as the body whose duty it is to guide the development of West Indies cricket, it is the West Indies board which must lead the way in the revival of West Indies cricket and thus the fortunes of the West Indies team.
Finding the money to fund a professional first-class competition in the region - to pay the players and to lengthen the first-class season in the Caribbean, may be a challenge, but on top of everything else, without facilities, without schools and without clubs, without a strong first-class competition, West Indies cricket is going nowhere.
wi weaknesses
Many have blamed the quality of first-class cricket in the region for the weaknesses in the West Indies team. Speaking recently after Australia had defeated the West Indies in the third one-day international and when asked about the performance of the newcomers to the Australian team, Aussie captain Ricky Ponting said it was all due to the quality of their first-class cricket.
Some time ago, former West Indies captain Brian Lara, in lamenting the poor quality of the West Indies team, said that "it's that we don't have a good infrastructure for young guys to develop", and that "if you don't have facilities and you don't have employment then you have a negative atmosphere".
It is as simple as that Mr. Hunte. If you don't provide for the players - for their development, from the beginning, and for their financial well being it is unfair, it is unreasonable, to expect anything - and especially great things, from them.
