Tony BeccaONCE the undisputed cricket champions of the world, the West Indies team is going through a rough period - and it is not so much because the other teams have become stronger. The truth is that the team is weak - so much so that many consider it the weakest ever to come out of the West Indies.
Once upon a time, the team was strong in every aspect of the game. It was strong in batting, bowling, fielding and captaincy. Today, despite the presence of the holder of the world record individual score and the holder of the world record number of wickets, it is weak in all four departments.
Something must be done to rectify the situation, and to its credit, the West Indies Board is making an attempt. The Board, for example, has introduced a regional Under 15 tournament, it has been staging a number of specialised clinics, it is restructuring the Busta Cup - its senior domestic competition, and recently it gathered together a number of its outstanding past players and others close to the game in an effort to come up with a plan of action.
As far as suggestions were concerned, the meeting was a tremendous success, and if even half of them are implemented, the standard of West Indies cricket should improve in another few years.
The improvement, however, will only be marginal unless the fraternity couples the implementation of the suggestions with a drive to spread the gospel - to encourage more youngsters to play the game.
Tournaments are good and important in the development process, and so too is coaching. It will, however, take more than regional tournaments and coaching of the best players to lift West Indies cricket back to standard where it will once again be the champions of the world - for the simple reason that the best may not be good enough.
Once upon a time cricket was king in the West Indies. In those days almost every boy played cricket, in those days form matches and house matches were played in schools, in those days the number of boys in action was such that they had to compete to get into form teams, into house teams, and obviously into school teams, and it was because of that level of participation and competition that West Indies cricket became strong.
Today, that is not the case. Today, there are not enough boys playing cricket in schools to even have house matches much more form matches, today a boy who plays cricket is almost sure to get into his school team, today an average schoolboy cricketer is almost sure to get into a club team, and that is the problem which must be addressed.
Competition, at all levels, encourages the development of skills, character, and fighting spirit, because there are fewer boys playing the game there is less competition to move from one level to the other, and because there is less competition players are moving on without being properly developed. That is why there are so many players at the territorial and West Indies levels who, despite some talent, cannot, in real terms, bat, bowl or field.
Participation, therefore, is the key to the future of West Indies cricket, and the fraternity - the administrators, the ex players, and all who love the game - should get up and spread the gospel once again.
In order to spread the gospel, the administrators have to talk more about the game every time the opportunity presents itself, like Horace Burrell and Rene Simoes used to do when they were converting this country into football supporters, they have to find platforms, the pulpits, from which to shout the gospel, and they have to encourage the stars of the game - the people's heroes and the small boys' idols - to join the crusade.
The greater the number of those who play the game, the better the chance of finding more who can really play the game and who will really benefit from tournaments and coaching.
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