Tony BeccaWEST Indies cricket is not what it used to be. In fact, it is far from what it used to be - so much so that fans at home and abroad, West Indians and non West Indians alike, are pleading for something to be done about it.
According to West Indians, West Indies cricket is too precious to them and has done so much for them for the slide, the fast slide from the top to the bottom, to continue; and according to non West Indians, the game has benefitted so much from the flair of West Indies cricket that it needs a strong West Indies team.
For the West Indies team to be strong again, however, especially as strong as it was up to a few years ago, West Indies cricket has to be strong, and it will not be strong unless the passion returns to the point where more people, more young boys, start playing the game again.
For that to happen, however, the leaders of cricket will have to recognise the reason, or at least one of the reasons, for the exodus.
The talk around the Caribbean is that American sports, particularly basketball, have enticed the youngsters away from cricket.
A number of young boys, young promising players, have turned away from the game, not because of basketball, but simply because they have become disenchanted with the lack of progress - because many believed they should have been selected when they were not.
Throughout the years, many youngsters have walked away, at all levels, from school onwards, because of that.
Looking at two Jamaicans for example, no one knows what heights someone like Leon Garrick would have attained had he been selected to the West Indies team when, as a young batsman, he was bubbling with confidence and feeling invincible; and so too Ricardo Powell who entered like a star, was the talk of the world, but was dropped after his first World Cup match when he batted at number three and also after his first Test.
In comparison to that sort of treatment, one like Adrian Griffith was retained time and time again, and despite his many failures, one like Courtney Browne is back in the team while a youngster like Vishal Nagamootoo is sitting at home wondering what his fate will be.
There are those who will argue that is how it has been throughout the years, those who will point to Trinidad's Andy Ganteaume who was selected for a Test match in 1948, scored 112 in his only innings, never played another Test match and continued to play the game he loved dearly, and they would be right.
The difference between then and now, however, is that there was no alternative. In those days it was cricket or nothing. Today, there are so many other sports.
What is worse, as far as participation is concerned, is that with so many choices others who fear the same fate will join the exodus, and the more who move away from it the more the game loses its appeal.
Because of the intricacies of the game and the variables, the selection of a cricket team is not easy. Despite what happened in the women's 100 metres at the Sydney Olympics, it certainly is not as easy as a sport like track and field, or others like tennis and table tennis.
The fact is, however, there are too many instances when the selectors obviously get it wrong and in doing so turn off players.
Ask some of those who were good young players why they packed it in and a majority will tell you that selectors gave them a hard time; and ask some of those who do not play the game at all why they do not and they will tell you that based on the stories they have heard they were not prepared to leave their fate in the hands of a few men.
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