Tony Becca
CRICKET FANS around the West Indies are hurting.
Once the best in the world, the West Indies are ranked at No. 8 out of ten, the only teams behind them are Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, and the fans cannot take it - so much so that they are casting blame left, right and centre.
With manager Ricky Skerritt already gone, some, including his staunchest supporters, are calling for the removal of captain Brian Lara as well as coaches Gus Logie and Kenny Benjamin.
The hurt is so much, the disappointment in the performance of the players such that, serious or not, fans are also calling for a clean sweep - even if, as they say, it means turning to the members of the team that finished second in the Youth World Cup in Bangladesh to represent the West Indies.
While there may be merit, and in fact while there is merit in the call for changes at the top, a change or changes would hardly make a difference and as far as the team is considered, it would be total madness, a real embarrassment, to bring in a set of youngsters to represent the West Indies.
For the umpteenth time, as important as a good captain, a good leader, a good manager and good coaches are to a team, the problem with West Indies cricket goes deeper than that.
The problem is that the structure of West Indies cricket is weak, and although they got away with it in years gone by, they cannot get away with it in this day and age.
For a start, West Indies cricket needs help at the school level, at the club level, and at the regional level.
West Indies cricket need help at the school to encourage more boys to play the game, it needs help at the club level so that the clubs can acquire coaches and provide proper facilities in order to assist in the development of players, and with every one in all walks of life looking for reward for their services, with many needing the extra penny to make ends meet, there is a need for more money in the regional competitions.
Where will the money come from?
Apart from cutting a staff that appears over-sized, apart from cutting down on staff travel, for a start the West Indies Board can move to paying the "Test" players on a performance related basis and use the money saved to offer better incentives to the regional players in the Carib Beer Series and the Red Stripe Bowl tournaments.
Another problem with West Indies cricket is the arrogance of many of the players - an arrogance that sees them not training enough or properly and arrogance that sees them getting out the same way time and time again without any effort to change whatever is wrong, an arrogance that sees them not listening to the coaches, and an arrogance that sees too many of the batsmen playing carelessly and getting out regardless of the time of the day or the situation of the match.
PAY BY PERFORMANCE
How can that be stopped? Pay by performance may just be the answer.
Right now, West Indies cricket needs a shake-up, and it is up to the Board to do it.
The West Indies Board needs to look at what is happening and make plans to change it. It needs to call in the presidents of the territorial boards and discuss the situation with them - including that of proper grooming of the players, it needs to call in the coaches to find out just what they are doing, if the players really are not listening to them or if others are interfering, and they need to call in the selectors and set down guidelines for the selection of players to the West Indies team.
When the Board has done all that, it needs to give control of the West Indies to one man and then to tell its directors that it will not entertain any interference when it comes to the matter of selection and discipline.
The West Indies possess players with a natural gift to play the game - no doubt about that. The main reason why the West Indies are no longer winning these days, however, is because they are not producing players with the skill, the maturity, the confidence, the experience and the pride to perform at the highest level, and until they do that, the West Indies will continue to perform brilliantly once in a while, reasonably well sometimes, and embarrassingly most of the time.
