Tony Becca
WEST INDIES cricket continues to baffle me. Each time it looks like it is turning the corner, it runs off the road. Against India, for example, the West Indies won the one-day series 4-1 and fought like tigers in the Test series before coming to Sabina Park where, after being routed for 103 in their first innings in less than three hours and in 33.3 overs, they dived to defeat by 49 runs in less than three days.
The question is, what is wrong with West Indies cricket? As many have said, it just cannot be the lack of talent.
What many have not been prepared to say, however, is the truth - that part of the problem, if not the real problem with West Indies cricket is the attitude of the players - many of whom, lacking in pride, think less about performance, their own and the team's, than they do about other things of this world such the nice cars, gold chains and gold bangles.
While it may be true, as some say, that they do care about performance, the fact of the matter is that most of them, and definitely so many of the Jamaicans, do not do the things that are necessary to perform. They do not, for example, train as much as they should, they do not practice as much and as diligently as they should and their batsmen certainly do not cherish, do not value their wickets as much as they should.
No game, no bling
And while nothing is wrong with nice cars, etc., the players need to understand, or be made to understand that without performance there will be no nice cars, etc. They must realise, or be made to realise, that as players, they, like the board members, are only a part of West Indies cricket and the sooner they realise and understand that, the better it will be for West Indies cricket.
The question, however, is this: who is going to make them understand and accept that?
Although it should be the board, based on what is happening in West Indies cricket these days, based on the fact that the Players Association seems to be calling the shots, it seems that it must be the Players Association.
In order to do so, however, the Players Association will have to first look at itself, see who it represents, who it is and has been fighting for and make a change.
Instead of representing all cricketers in the West Indies and working for their development, the Players Association, so it appears, represents only the West Indies players, it works only for the West Indies players and, in working for the West Indies players, it appears that it only does so as far as money - their fees and contracts - are concerned.
West Indies cricket, however, needs a Players Association that represents all the cricketers and one that works for all the cricketers. It does not need one that only attempts to get every cent it can from the board - and not for the first-class cricketers in the region - the non-Test players that is, not for better Under-19 and Under-15 tournaments, not for better programmes that will assist in the deve-lopment of all the cricketers, young and old, in the region, but for the few Test players.
Deplorable conditions
According to reports, the conditions, including the eating conditions, during the Under-15 tournament in Antigua, the seat of the headquarters of the board, were deplorable and an embarrassment to West Indies cricket and that cannot be good for West Indies cricket.
Things like that will stifle the growth of West Indies cricket, things like that cannot motivate young
players to play the game and to represent the West Indies. Things like that will ensure that the glory days will never come back and if the Players Association is really interested in the growth and development of West Indies cricket and not just filling the pockets of those now representing the West Indies, if it really wants to see West Indies cricket return to its position as the best in the world, it had better change its ways and move to represent, really represent, all those who play the game in the West Indies.
Remember the West Indies tour to South Africa in 1998? Well, that tour almost never took place because of money - and not money for the deve-lopment of West Indies cricket, not money for all the cricketers in the region and not even money for the members of the team.
It was money for four players on the team and West Indies cricket has not yet recovered.
