Tony Becca ON SUNDAY, one day after the chaotic end to the Cricket World Cup at Kensington Oval, the directors of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), its cricket committee and its selectors met in Bridgetown, Barbados, and at the end of the meeting they came out with one accord.
Speaking in one voice, they lamented the performance of the teams, they talked about accountability and performance, and they said, in one voice, that in their effort to turn things around, it would not be business as usual.
Well, based on what has happened since, but for the non-selection of Marlon Samuels and Dwayne Smith for the tour of England, based on the selection of Sylvester Joseph and Runako Morton, it has been business as usual.
As far as the coach is concerned it is not the same man, it is business as usual. In fact, based on what has happened since, it seems that it really would have been business as usual had Bennett King not resigned.
He probably would not have been fired, or rather asked to resign.
After failure
After failing in his job, after the team had failed to demonstrate one ounce of improvement during his reign, after the discipline of the team had fallen so badly, and, after the team's dismal performance in the World Cup, King, who appeared to have taken a hands-off approach, resigned.
In doing so, however, King, the man who had failed, recommended his right-hand man for the job and instead of telling him thanks, but no thanks, instead of looking elsewhere and employing somebody new even just for the tour, instead of looking around and employing a West Indian, probably one of Roger Harper, Gus Logie, Phil Simmons, Jimmy Adams or Otis Gibson, people who all played the game and are qualified coaches, the board accepted King's recommendation.
The result is that there is nothing new about the coach. It is, as usual, business as usual.
While Michael Findlay has replaced Clive Lloyd as the manager, the team coordinator, or whatever name the position is now called, in what is a good move and is not business as usual, it is business as usual as far as the players are concerned - and the omission of Samuels and Dwayne Smith does not make a difference.
Not good enough
As talented as they may be, Samuels' record of 23 Test matches with one century and an average of 28.21 plus a first-class record of 58 matches with five centuries and average of 35.72 and Dwayne Smith's Test record of 10 Testmatches with one century at an average of 24.61 plus a first-class record of 55 matches with five centuries at an average of 26.81 are simply not good enough.
It is business as usual, however, in that Devon Smith, with a Test record of 16 matches with one century and an average of 25.34, with a first-class record of 90 matches with 13 centuries and an average of 37.25, is in the team and they are not.
And the fact that they were ignored while Sylvester Joseph, with a Test record of four matches and an average of 16.43 and a first-class record of 85 matches with nine centuries at an average of 31.87, and Runako Morton, with a Test record of six matches and an average of 26.11, and a first-class record of 63 matches with seven centuries and an average of 35.11, were included in the 15-man squad suggests that it was indeed business as usual.
While neither Samuels nor Dwayne Smith has done nothing to demand places on the team over Joseph and Morton, it is certainly business as usual because these four players have been in and out of the team. In other words, they have been swapping places for the past few years.
Although, because of the lack of talent around, because of the lack of performing players around, the selectors must have found it difficult to find anyone else, the selection of Daren Sammy, an all-rounder with a first-class record of 33 matches, no centuries, a batting average of 24.86 and a total of 75 wickets, suggests that it is business as usual.
In other words, the selectors, just as they have been doing for years now while selecting players without a record of performance good enough to suggest that they can compete at the highest level, are hoping for a miracle.
The selection of five pace bowlers in Jerome Taylor, Daren Powell, Fidel Edwards, Corey Collymore and Ravi Rampaul, and two pace-bowling all-rounders in Dwayne Bravo and Sammy, the selection of seven batsmen in Ramnaresh Sarwan, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Daren Ganga, Christopher Gayle, Joseph, Morton and Devon Smith plus the two all-rounders, including Bravo, who is sure to bat as high number five, and no second wicketkeeper and no specialist spin bowler also suggests that it is business as usual.
With the tour taking place in the first part of the English summer there may be good reason for not taking a specialist spin bowler. Apart from the fact that quantity never makes up for quality, however, apart from the fact that left-arm wrist spinner Dave Mohammed is as good as if not better than most of the pacers, if the West Indies board and its selectors are talking development then a spin bowler, preferably Mohammed, should have been included in the squad.
What is really interesting, however, what is disturbing is that despite the many instances of indiscipline in the West Indies team in recent times, despite their attitude towards training, despite the lack of pride, and despite all the talk by the board about making changes and about it not being business as usual, Gordon Greenidge, the chairman of the selection committee, has said that the selectors received no complaint about indiscipline and therefore indiscipline was not taken into account in the selection of the squad.
If that is so, then remembering what happened in the past when things were swept under the carpet, that strengthens the belief that the selection of the team was business as usual.
