Adams... individuals not pushing themselves. SYDNEY, (AP) --
WEST Indies cricket captain Jimmy Adams, in the midst of one of his team's worst tours, has accused his players of having unacceptably low standards.
Preparing for last night's (Jamaica time) limited-overs match against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground, the West Indies went through 45 minutes of fielding drills with apparently little intensity.
Players laughed when their teammates dropped a catch, spent too long standing still with hands on hips and gave the general impression they cared little about their work.
Adams said it was important the struggling West Indies remained in good spirits but admitted he was concerned individuals were not pushing themselves hard enough.
"What you're talking about is standards," said Adams. "As well as team standards you need fellows to have individual standards, standards that they themselves will carry.
"Never mind whether they're in a West Indies team or they're playing county cricket in England or they're playing club cricket back home, we need to have a system where each player has his own standards when they arrive in the Test team.
"On a whole our cricket in the Caribbean is failing a little bit in that we accept standards, individual standards, that are too low."
The formerly powerful West Indies are coming off a 5-0 thrashing in the Tests and are playing for pride in the tri-series against Australia and Zimbabwe.
"We were given 10 or 20 years of the highest example of cricket possible," said Adams. "We've lived it and seen it, what it means to go out on to a cricket field and personally, as well as collectively, want that highest standard for ourselves.
"While that was happening for 20 years, maybe the system that supported that team wasn't as consistent as it should have been, maybe it relaxed too long and got fat and lazy, who knows?
"Standards have dropped -- as much as trying to get players ready technically, it is also a very big challenge to accept what standards should and should not be acceptable."
