Tony Becca FROM THE BOUNDARY A FEW days ago I was speaking on the telephone to a friend of mine about West Indies cricket.
After a while, after discussing the many problems of West Indies cricket, my friend (one of this country's most successful businessmen, a man who has served this country in many ways, a man who has given both his money and his time to the development of sport and in particularly cricket in this country) said to me, softly and with emotion coming through in his voice, "Tony, I have been hoping and praying for a long time that things would change, but I am now almost at the point of giving up".
Weak leadership
According to my friend, the leadership of cricket in the West Indies, in all the territories, at all levels, and barring just a few, is so weak that unless there is a change in personnel, and quickly at that, realistically, there is little hope for the game that once provided the people of the region with so much hope, so much pride and so much joy.
My friend's sentiments echoed my own. Despite some talented players, West Indies cricket in its present state, when it comes to skilled players, with the bat, with the ball, in the field and as captains, is so weak that sometimes it is almost embarrassing.
What is really disturbing is that it is so weak because of poor leadership - the kind of leadership which does not understand what development entails, what it is all about, the kind of leadership which does not appreciate the value of good and proper facilities for practice and for competition.
Also, the kind of leadership which does not understand the importance of well-organised competitions. The kind of leadership, at the top, which, despite the achievements and the greatness of West Indians, does not believe in its own people to guide, to coach and to train. The kind of leadership which, obviously, does not believe that the players have a pride of their own and respect their own.
And the kind of leadership which, despite all the talk of the brilliance of West Indians in all walks of life right around the world, does not listen to its own people.
That is why the West Indies have a group of Australians as coach, physio-therapist, etc. And that is why the chief executive officer of the West Indies Cricket Board, Dr Donald Peters, could stand up in public a week or so ago and say that in a bid to improve on the standard of play that the regional domestic season will be extended as of next season.
He also said that it is being done because the short season was one of the things identified as one of the causes of the West Indies weakness by John Dyson, the West Indies' Australian coach, when he first arrived in the region.
According to Peters, based on Dyson, the West Indies players do not play as much first-class cricket as other countries.
By playing more first-class cricket, the West Indies players will have the opportunity to work harder at their game and to improve the quality of cricket they play, and that is true. In fact, it is so obvious that there can be no question about it.
no new argument
More importantly, however, that argument is nothing new to the West Indies. Hopefully, Dyson does not believe that he has discovered anything.
And, hopefully, Peters does not believe that Dyson has discovered the magic formula that will lead to the recovery of West Indies cricket.
Maybe, Peters does not know, or hope-fully does not remember, that for many, many years a number of people in the West Indies have been talking about a longer season. In fact, one season, in 1997, when there were return matches, it was tried and promptly discarded.
The experiment came to a sudden end, ostensibly because the players rebelled, with some saying the season was too long and tiring and some saying it was too boring. Privately, it was because the board was short of money to do it again.
Is there any hope for the game in the West Indies? Is there any real chance that the West Indies will once again be the best in the world?
If the board can really succeed in lengthening the domestic season, if it can pay the first-class players a good salary, it is possible - especially so, if it can rekindle national pride in the players by employing West Indians, their own people, to guide their development.
History of the board
Such is the history of the board, however, so many have been its broken promises, so ignorant are so many to what is necessary to improve skills in the game and to market the game and, when it comes to looking out for themselves, so selfish are so many of them that cricket fans, those who love the game and who would like to see it played brilliantly by West Indians again, can only hope and pray.
The broken promises include the start of a regional club competition, the movement of players from territory to territory, and the start of the regional limited-over competition which was expected to get under way in a few days time and which was scheduled to be played in Florida but which, apparently, has been postponed.
Something is wrong, seriously wrong with the leadership of West Indies cricket.
Giving up ON WIndies
Imagine, if you can, a regional tour-nament planned for mid-September, imagine the teams, including Jamaica, preparing for it, spending money for practice and trial matches, and imagine the tournament, for whatever reason, being postponed and the participating teams unaware that it has been postponed and not knowing if and when it will be played.
Apart from that being a waste of money and time, that must be a recipe for disaster.
That, along with the discovery by the man from 'Down Under', by Dyson, the supposed discovery which, according to Peters, has influenced the board to make yet another announcement, another promise, must be one of the things why my friend is on the verge of giving up on West Indies cricket.
Dyson
