Tony Becca, Contributing Editor
WEST INDIES cricket is in such a state that fans are wondering if the West Indies will ever again produce a champion team.
In fact, there is a fear that it will be a long, long time before the West Indies come up with a winning team - not one that can defeat Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, but one that take on and defeat the likes of Australia, England and South Africa.
The reason for the fear is that the conflict between the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the WI Players Association (WIPA) and the problems involving the sponsorship deal with the board and Digicel, have been such that they are bound to have a serious effect on West Indies cricket - on the region's ability to come together in an effort to change the present fortunes of the West Indies team.
According to those who fear the worse, the fall-out from both things have been so bad that even if and when the board and the players make peace, even if and when the issues surrounding the deal between the board and its sponsors, past and present, is settled, the wounds will be such that it will take a long time for them to heal, even longer for the scars to disappear, and that is true, no question about that.
For West Indies cricket to rise again, for the West Indies team to perform better than it has been doing for the past 10 years or so, the board and the Players Association, for example, must bury the hatchet and work together, and based on reports that the two cannot work together, that neither one likes the other, if that means that the board must get rid of its chief executive officer and that the Players Association must also remove its president and CEO, then so be it.
NO IMPROVEMENT
Although the removal of Roger Brathwaite and/or Dinanath Ramnarine may be just what the doctor ordered for a good relationship between the board and the Players Association, that may not improve the standard of West Indies cricket or change the fortunes of the West Indies team not when it is remembered that the standard of West Indies cricket and the performance of the West Indies team had dropped drastically long before the impasse between the West Indies board and the Players Association.
While it must be true that the impasse between the board and the Players Association, like the problems between the board and its sponsors must have affected the West Indies team, one of the problems with the West Indies team seems to be the players, and unless something is done about that, unless the selectors start looking for more than talent, skill, and ability, it will really be a long time before the West Indies team returns to its winning ways.
As so many have been saying for so long, performance at the highest level calls for more than talent - for more than the ability to hit a cricket ball or to bowl a cricket ball.
Performance at the highest level, and especially so in this age of professionalism, calls for dedication and commitment, for training and practicing, for a pride in one's performance that will not settle for anything but the best, for a competitive spirit that will fight to the end regardless of the circumstances or the situation of a game, for loyalty, and for respect for a game in which, and particularly so for a batsman, the difference between success and failure can be one delivery - one careless or reckless stroke.
NO RESPECT FOR FANS
On top of all that, the attitude of many West Indies cricketers of recent times suggests not only that they believe they are better than they are, not only that they do not have to train and practice in order to perform, not only that they have a divine right to be selected even when they do not perform, but based on the reaction of some of them to their fans, also that they have no respect for the fans.
The West Indies board and the Players Association have hurt West Indies cricket, it has stalled the development process, and unless there is a change in their attitude towards each other, unless the board starts showing some respect for the players and accepts their right to bargain, unless the Players Association starts showing some respect for the board whose members are elected the leaders of the game, it will be a long time before there will be any change in the fortunes of the West Indies team.
In the final analysis, however, the fortunes of the West Indies team depends, to a large extent, on what happens on the field, what happens on the field depends on the players selected, and remembering that it is the selectors who select those who take the field, it is their responsibility to change things - to select, not only players with talent, but players who are also fit, physically and mentally, who can and will follow instructions.
Also who can read the game, who can think on their feet, who love the game, who enjoy playing the game, who are proud to represent the West Indies, and who are prepared to do everything in order to represent the West Indies and to make the West Indies team as great as it was a decade or so ago.
BAD ATTITUDE
In recent years, too many players who were not ready, technically and mentally, to play Test cricket were selected to represent the West Indies. Right now, West Indies cricketers, the majority of them, are getting away with doing as little as possible, with an attitude that suggests anything will do, and things like that will never change unless the selectors do something about it - and quickly at that.
The next World Cup, for example, is around the corner, the West Indies will be the home team, and win or lose, it is important that they put up a good show.
And lest the players have forgotten, a good show is playing well - with the bat, with the ball and in the field, it is giving the best every time, and it is playing with a spirit that will see every player fighting to the last ball a spirit that will get the fans, their fans, to support them to the point where they will not only cheer when they win but will also sympathise with them if and when they lose.
