Tony Becca

West Indies cricket is suffering and although, based on the performance of the team against Australia things seem to be improving, there is no question about that.

Every now and again the West Indies do something good, even brilliant and people, especially those in leadership positions, talk about turning the corner. Every now and again the bowlers, especially the fast bowlers, do something brilliant and people, especially those in leadership positions, clap their hands. At every now and again the batsmen, and especially so Shivnarine Chanderpaul, do something brilliant and people jump and shout.

Apart from the fact that Chanderpaul, the undisputed top batsman on the team, has been playing for the West Indies since 1994, apart from the fact that West Indies have not produced one outstanding batsman for a long, long time, the truth is that West Indies cricket is struggling, it needs attention and it needs it urgently.

Loss of interest

According to many close to the game, one of the reasons for the present predicament is a loss of interest in the game by young people. According to them, there is pressure on cricket from other sports like football and basketball and that may well be true.

To me, however, it is more than that.

Apart from the lack of money to do what really needs to be done - to provide the technical assistance and the facilities, to me the problem is what has happened in the schools and in the clubs.

According to coach John Dyson, West Indies cricket is weak because West Indies first-class cricket is weak. And there can be no doubt about it: West Indies first-class cricket is weak because club cricket and school cricket, the base of the game anywhere in the world, is weak, and very weak at that.

There is talk about the formation of an academy and satellites around the region, there is talk about a master coaching system to develop players. All that is good, or can be good.

Without a good base, however, without a strong school system and a strong club system, those things will be useless - and very useless at that.

Improve the ability

The problem therefore, the most important thing in improving the standard of the game, in developing both the skill level and the understanding of the game, in knowing what to do and when to do it, when to be careful and when to be attacking, is what to do with the schools and with the clubs in an effort to change things, and the solution it seems, must be to improve the ability of the schools and the clubs to play the game.

In order to do that, however, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), the body which controls the money, however much that is, that comes into West Indies cricket, must invest some of its money into the schools and into the clubs.

Obviously, the board cannot fund the schools and the clubs throughout the region, but it is, it must be, in their interest to assist the schools and the clubs in catering to the game, in spreading the gospel of the game and in developing the skills of those who play the game, and especially so the young players.

Failing cricket

The clubs, for example, are failing cricket and they are failing cricket for the simple reason that they do not have enough money to pay for the necessities of the game - including the basic necessities of at least one coach, a ground staff to roll the pitch and to cut the grass, to provide balls for practice and not least of all, to pay the water bill every month.

The clubs, for example, should be the place for young boys, whatever their age, to learn the game. Although some of the clubs have a summer programme that lasts for two or three weeks, there is not one club, not Kingston, not Melbourne, not Kensington and certainly not Lucas, that offers a programme where a youngster can go once or twice, or even three times a week, in their effort to learn the game - to play the game in a well organised way.

Right now, there are young boys, at age seven, eight and nine who love the game, whose parents encourage them to play the game, whose parents keep calling the clubs asking questions about available programmes, but who have nowhere to play - nowhere to go in the afternoons after school to feed their interest, to develop and to hone their skills.

The youngsters are the future of West Indies cricket, there are many with a passion for the game and unless those in cricket, those who love cricket, provide an outlet for the youngsters who love the game to play the game, it won't be long before they turn their backs on the game and who to tell, probably turn to football, to basketball, or to whatever sport caters to them.

Passion to people

For a game that has been played in the region for so long, for a game that has such deep roots in the region, for a game that has brought so much pride to the people of the region and for a game, that more than any other, is a passion to the people of the region, it is an embarrassment that but for Dr Akshai Mansingh's effort, there is no place and definitely so in Jamaica, where a youngster with a passion for the game can go and learn to play the game.

The WICB should remember that without youngsters eventually there will be no West Indies team.

School children cheering for the West Indies during the final day's play in the third Test of the Digicel Series, at Kensington Oval, Barbados, yesterday. - photo by Dellmar