BRIDGETOWN, Barbados CANA:
COMPLAINING about the attitude of some of the players and the environment in which they are playing, Joe Hoad has quit his job as the West Indies cricket team's performance enhancer.
Hoad, 64, is Barbados born and based in Adelaide, Australia, where he works with the South Australia Cricket Association. He joined the West Indies during their tough Australia visit last December.
"The success or failure of the West Indies team will reflect upon the coach, the manager, the captain and myself," Hoad said yesterday.
He added: "If there was not any talent and they were just a bunch of useless cricketers, perhaps I might have stayed and developed cricketers, but these are very talented cricketers.
"Their only problem is they have a very complacent attitude and think they are on top of the world. It seems they would rather miss a practice session than they would a party. With that kind of an attitude, they should concentrate on partying and let somebody else play cricket."
Hoad suggested hitting the players hard in their pockets was one way that some discipline and control can be brought back into the team.
"The fellows play cricket for very, very good pay and, therefore, if the pay has attracted them to cricket and if they are not willing to put in the effort, then they should be fined," he remarked.
"We saw it happen during the last Test match against South Africa and I think this should also apply to their attitude at practice, for breaking curfews and things of this nature. They need to understand that kind of nonsense will not be accepted.
"They need to understand they are playing for a professional cricket team and must improve because the West Indies have supporters all over the world who want them to play good cricket. People hurt when we play like schoolboys, but few of them seem to care."
Hoad asserted the players were willing to accept and applaud mediocrity. He noted an instance where he was told winning or losing did not matter because the players would be paid the same amount of money.
"There is no pride in what they are doing because they are doing it for the money," he said.
"I am not begrudging them for having the money, but I have been spoiled because all the cricket coaching and all the sports psychology I have done has been done in Australia and very high standards for sports have been set there."
Hoad was surprised by a player survey in which he gained mostly top marks for his contribution to team morale.
"I did a survey asking the players, on a scale of one to five, if I had helped to motivate them, to deal with the pressures of modern international cricket, in setting realistic goals and things of that nature and, strangely enough, a number of them gave me five," he commented.
"When I looked at some of the survey forms, I think some of them did not understand some of the questions because I got a five from a player who told me 'all I need is to be in form because I can bat better than Garfield Sobers'.
"Now there may be a Garfield Sobers living in his area that he can bat better than, but the Garfield Sobers I know could bat better than many of the players currently playing Test cricket."
