GORDON WILLIAMS, Freelance Writer

Lawrence Rowe, coach of the US Invitational team that played Jamaica in the Air Jamaica Cup at the multi-purpose stadium in Trelawny. - Photo by Janet Silvera

Former batting star Lawrence 'Yagga' Rowe believes the West Indies is still producing talented cricketers, but insists that the regional team will not blossom beyond mediocrity if former great players continued to be excluded from the game's influential roles.

"I think the talent is there," said the Jamaican, who scored a double century and a century in his first Test match.

Rowe, who was in the island last weekend as honorary coach of a United States-based team that faced Jamaica in the first match played at the still- under-construction Trelawny Multi-purpose Stadium, said it is now "too easy to get into" the West Indies team, adding that when he made his Test debut in 1972 it was much harder to get and keep a place.

"You make 30 and 40 and you make the team," he said with a laugh. "In my time, when I played, you had to make hundreds and hundreds and hundreds ... and then ... they look at you."

However, Rowe, who played 30 Tests and scored 2,047 runs, and was hailed as one of the finest batting talents to come out of the region, was not ready to cast all the blame on the players.

The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has blundered as well, he said, and criticized the appointment of Australian Bennett King as coach for the West Indies team, claiming that if a coach from the region had been given the same backing as King he would have served the West Indies better.

Try our own first

"I believe we should try our own first and give our own the tools to work with," said the 57-year-old Rowe, who also scored a triple-century and averaged 43.55 runs in Tests.

"You hire a guy from Australia and you give him all the tools to work with. You hire a guy in the West Indies and you give him no tools to work with. That's not fair."

In addition to being paid a hefty salary for him and his team of assistants, King also serves as a selector, power which no other West Indies coach before him ever had.

Rowe said no foreigner could become familiar enough with West Indian players to fully understand their style of play and be able to get the best out of them.

"Brazil doesn't go to England to look for a coach to coach Brazil," he said, drawing an analogy with the five-time world football champions.

"The West Indies is (to cricket) what Brazil is (to football) and I believe we should have our own (coach). We're playing a different style, a different brand of cricket and I believe we have people here who can get the job done."

When asked to name suitable candidates from the region, the former master batsman put his own name into the mix.

"(There are) a lot of people," said Rowe, whose batting was characterized by near-flawless technique, concentration and stylish stroke play, before adding: "You have me, for instance. I'd start with me."

However, Rowe said he had never applied for the job and probably would not because, he insisted, current WICB administrators are not keen on including former players in their plans.

"No, I've not done that and I have no plans to do it because I know right at this time the people are going against former players," he said. "A lot of former players can't get into the West Indies (set up)."

Poor sign

But the total blame for the West Indies' continued woes on the field does not rest solely with the WICB either, Rowe said. He said many of today's players had been ushered into the regional team far too early, without a chance to properly hone their skills and toughen their mental capacity to cope with the international game.

Rowe explained, for example, that it was a poor sign that captain Brian Lara is still the undisputed best batsman in the West Indies after so many years in the game. He said the younger players should have been motivated to assume that role as Lara got older. None, he said, has stepped forward, despite some showing early promise.

"One of the things that is so nerve-wracking about it is that Brian Lara is the only top batsman we've had for about 15 years," said Rowe, who in his time played in West Indies teams which included such great batsmen as Garfield Sobers, Vivian Richards, Desmond Haynes, Gordon Greenidge, Clive Lloyd and Alvin Kallicharan.

"I think the youngsters should really realize and come to themselves and say 'no, we've got to lick this man off this mantle'. Because he (Lara) has been the man for long and nobody has come up and challenged the man.

"And I believe the youngsters are good enough," Rowe added. "We have players."

Hopefuls

He singled out Jamaica's Marlon Samuels and Guyanese Ramnaresh Sarwan as two who should be contributing much more to the West Indies' batting, but who have yet to fulfil their promise, even after a few years in the team.

"I can't say 'young' Samuels anymore because Marlon has gone on now," said Rowe, who follows West Indies cricket fortunes from his home in Florida, United States.

"He has gotten a few chances and have not done well with them. You have people like Ronnie Sarwan, although Sarwan, I don't think he has done as much as he could have done as a young player. And it goes on and on.

"We have a lot of youngsters who we've looked at and believed that they would have taken up the mantle and moved forward and they have not done so."

As for the overall state of West Indies batting, Rowe appeared stumped for clear-cut solutions to the current woes.

"Boy, it's so difficult," he said. "It's such a tough, complex question because we've been trying to get out of the rut we have been in now for about 10 years and it seems to just keep on going down the same path.

" ... For some reason or the other I believe it's a multi-level thing," he added. "I believe it has a lot to do with the Board, it has a lot to do with the players, former players not too involved with the sport right now. And I think all these things, it's a combination of things, that have caused us to be down the ladder like this."

Gordon Williams is a Jamaican journalist based in the United States.