Dear Editor,
When WI cricketers pray for victory, as Dwayne Bravo told us long ago, and Andre Russell, after his fantastic performance in the victory over South Africa in the fourth ODI, you know they not only badly want to win, but also need help in their efforts to win. To those who influence public opinion about the attitude of players, such thoughts are anathema, as to them they only encourage lack of pride, and of willingness to work hard.
In a recent speech describing what he saw as the negative impact of 20-20 cricket on the game in the region, the Chairman of selectors was reported as citing the refusal or reluctance of Russell to play Test cricket as being grounded in the latter`s preference for 20-20 money over the duty of representing the region in Tests.
During the aforesaid fourth ODI, Holding, who as a fellow Jamaican, is likely to know Russell better than the Chairman, said that Russell had knee problems for most of his career and that “five days on a knee like this won`t work.” The Chairman obviously spoke intuitively or speculatively, while Holding offered an opinion that could reasonably be tested
objectively, with the potential consequence of remedial action being taken. Most reasonable people will agree that the subject matter involved was of real significance both for the young man and for West Indies cricket.
The Chairman, of course, is the same person who saw nothing wrong with excluding Dwayne Bravo from a 15-man ODI squad at the same time the latter was chosen on a world ODI 11. Many, more knowledgeable than I, said Bravo`s exclusion was victimization for his involvement in the Indian tour fiasco, while leaders of WICB and WIPA who were found by a task force to be at least as, if not more responsible, for the fiasco as the players, suffered only public criticism.
This anti-player attitude is reflected in perhaps even more important areas that are not obvious to the public. The WI is the only cricket team in the world without a head coach or batting coach, (Mr Williams is described as the coaching coordinator) a fielding coach, or sports psychologist whom the English player Moeen Ali described, along with a dietician, as standard on international teams. Frankly it is surprising that WI teams win any games.
It is an unhealthy attitude that must be remedied immediately if WI cricket is to make the kind of progress that all parties claim they want.
Yours faithfully,
Romain Pitt