Tony Becca
THE WEST Indies cricket team is no longer the best in the world, it is numbered among the weak, and apart from all the other problems, including the attitude of so many of its players, one reason for that - probably the main reason - is the blinkered approach of the Board.
In a desperate bid to build a strong West Indies team, the Board, the West Indies Board, has ignored the common sense approach of starting at the bottom - at building a strong foundation, and instead of looking at a long term solution, it has been busy looking for a quick fix.
In other words, instead of building from the schools and the clubs, instead of ensuring that there is a good system in each of its member territories, instead of encouraging the territories to develop their cricketers and to get them ready technically, physically and mentally for first-class cricket and then for Test cricket, instead of spending some of its money in those areas, the Board, for a number of years now, has been attempting to build a strong West Indies team by itself.
TOO INVOLVED
Instead of leaving the territories to develop their cricketers, instead of helping the territories to produce West Indies players, and instead of concentrating on administering the game, marketing it, and finding funding for it, the Board has decided to get involved with the development of the players who it believes, through its selectors, are the best in the region.
The Board apparently believes that it can teach players how to bat, how to bowl, how to field, and how to think, and that it can get the players physically and mentally fit - and all in a week or so.
Apart from the fact that that is wishful thinking, that a strong foundation is important and that building from the top is a recipe for disaster; apart from the fact that bringing together a group of players for a short time is a waste of time and also expensive - and certainly so in the West Indies, the Board has obviously forgotten that it is the territories, through the schools and clubs, that made West Indies cricket as strong as it was.
It has forgotten that a strong West Indies team depends on the strength of West Indies cricket, that the strength of West Indies cricket depends on the competitive nature of the region's competitions, and that the strength of those competitions depend on the importance placed on those competitions by the territories.
The strength of those competitions do not only depend on the importance placed on them by the territories, however. It also depends on the importance placed on those competitions by the Board, and based on what has happened in the recent past, based on what is planned for the players before they leave for Australia, the Board, despite what it tells it sponsors, has little regard for the regional competitions.
That is why, for example, players who, for whatever reason, do not represent their territories are selected to represent the West Indies, and why, unlike what happens in other countries, players who play elsewhere and do not play in the regional competitions can now be selected to represent the West Indies.
The little regard for the regional competitions, however, is underlined by the fact that even though they do not live in the territory, even though they know little of what is happening in a territory, West Indies selectors have attempted to tell selectors in the territories, those who know more about their players, who to select to represent their territories.
According to these one-eyed selectors, West Indies cricket should take priority over the ambitions of the regional teams, because of that the regional selectors should think of the West Indies team when selecting their teams, and that is nonsense.
The reason for the regional competitions is development, the aim of every team in any competition is to win, one of the reasons for the regional competitions is to select the West Indies team, the responsibility of every regional selector, therefore, is to select the best team, and if that is not so then the competitions are a waste of time.
The job of the West Indies selectors is to select the West Indies team - and not from the school level, the club level, or the territorial level.
After each set of territorial selectors has selected the territorial teams and put them out to compete, their job is to look at the players in action during the competitions and select, in their opinion, the best players, the best team, to represent the West Indies.
The latest show of disregard for the regional competitions is the Board's plan to have a camp in Barbados before the West Indies team departs for Australia.
According to the Board, the regional limited-overs tournament is scheduled to start on October 2 in Barbados and Guyana, and according to the Board, the West Indies squad for Australia will gather for a camp in Barbados between September 23 and 29.
CONFLICTS
Based on the dates, that is not a conflict. Based on the preparation of the teams for the limited-overs tournament, however, that is a conflict - and it is a conflict for the simple reason that those teams with players in the West Indies squad will be without their top players in the last week of preparation.
Although the West Indies camps have made no difference to the performance of the West Indies team, maybe this one will, and maybe it had to be held at the time it will be held.
Apart from the fact that a squad of players will obviously be selected before the regional tournament even gets underway, it is, however, another piece of evidence of the blinkered approach to the development of a strong West Indies team by the West Indies Board.
It shows that the Board really believes that the way to build is from the top down instead of from the foundation up.
It shows that as far as the development of West Indies cricket is concerned, the regional competitions really do not matter, and maybe that is why it usually has so much difficulty finding sponsors for regional competitions - why, this one, the regional limited-overs tournament, is without a sponsor and why the Board should get rid of the blinkers.
