Tym Glaser, final word

Just where do the West Indies go from here?

In a universe post-World Cup and post-BC, the mess in maroon hasn't reached another crossroads, it has hit a dead end.

The King abdicated with the 'Prince' and now the team has neither a coach nor captain/legend on the eve of a tour to England. The minions at the West Indies Cronyism Board (WICB), led by president Ken Gordon, keep talking about the way forward while bickering among themselves as to who should succeed B.C. Lara and a million and one other things that just aren't going to make a damn difference in the grander scheme of things.

Do they honestly think appointing Ramnaresh Sarwan or Daren Ganga or my aunty Beth is going to catapult the West Indies back up world cricket's power rankings?

And they could hire super Aussie coach John Buchanan and every living West Indian legend as his assistants but this bus ain't going nowhere until it slips itself into reverse and rolls over all those speed bumps which have crippled the game here for more than a dozen years now.

The whole cash-strapped West Indies' system needs to be reviewed and then stripped down to its barest parts and started anew. You simply cannot breed a strong professional cricket culture when the only players reaping financial rewards are an underperforming, ill-disciplined, elite group at the top of the tree.

Grubby mess

Aided and abetted by the West Indies Players Association (WIPA), which cares far more about today's pay cheques than tomorrow's potential stars and is heading for yet another showdown with the board, there is hardly any cash trickle-down to the grass roots of the game.

The whole grubby mess needs to be revisited by people far smarter than I who are willing to make brave, prudent and probably unpopular recommendations which then must be adopted by the WICB and not swept under the carpet or merely forgotten. Hands up, who remembers that Lucky Report which delved into the board's "dealings" with sponsorship suitors Digicel and Cable and Wireless? That would be a start.

On the field, the region needs an active and enthusiastic technical director far more than a lame-duck coach. You can have the greatest coach in the world, la Buchanan, but if there's no strong feed-through programme into the senior set-up, he's about as useful as udders on a bull.

This TD must oversee micro cricket workshops in each major Caribbean cricket territory - Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad, Guyana and the Leewards and Windwards. In each of these places mini-academies/workshops must be set up where that zone's best 15 or so players meet two weekends per month under strict guidance from professional coaches. The players should be no older than 16.

Rigorous camps

The camps should be rigorous and also involve classes about all aspects of the game including history, so they can appreciate where West Indian cricket came from. If the kids can't hack it, cut them and find others.

Twice a year, the top three from each region should be sent to a two-week camp under the auspices of the TD and the best coaches in the region.

Maybe it could be held at that Pink Elephant of an academy in Grenada.

From these camps, the best of the best can be identified and pointed out to the WICB and the regional boards so they can be assisted though the club and national systems.

I stress, these courses must be almost military-style tough to instill hardiness and to weed out the weak.

The identification of talent is too hit and miss now, this would provide some structure and keep youngsters in the fold and not allow them to 'backslide' into bad habits.

What about a coach, you say.

Well, just for now, aunty Beth's waiting by the phone.

Feedback: tym.glaser@gleanerjm.com