Dear Editor,
The likely exclusion of the West Indies from the Champions trophy is a very serious matter. Zimbabwe is also virtually certain not to be included in the eight, with the result that with the exception of the odd black South African, there will be no black cricketers represented. For a long time, journalists from the leading cricket countries have been hinting and some actually advocating the demotion of the West Indies from the top tier of Test cricket. Those journalists received some encouragement from West Indians who believed that West Indian cricketers were not doing their best in international encounters, and perhaps deserved to be demoted. It should not, therefore, be expected that those foreign journalists and the teams they support will come to the aid of the West Indies. West Indians alone can save West Indies cricket. When in the past I have suggested that today`s players should not always be judged by the standards and successes of the legends that preceded them it is not because I do not revere those legends. I fully appreciate what they have meant to the region.
We must admit that there are those in the top echelons of West Indies cricket who are more interested in the politics and finance of the game than in the game itself. Several others, who love the game (including former players) believe that West Indians are natural cricketers and therefore if they are not winning, the explanation is to be found in the character of the modern player. They are, generally, very angry about the existing state of affairs and consequently are not constructive in their criticism. A careful examination of post- war West Indian cricket history will confirm that even between the period 1950 and the end of the era of dominance in, say 1995, West Indies not only had mediocre teams, but even had mediocre fast bowlers. When I saw my first live Test match in 1973, Uton Dowe and Vanburn Holder opened the bowling, and the Greenidge who opened the batting was not the one who became a legend.
I believe that what needs to be done to put things right in the sense of making the team competitive can be implemented by the professional staff under the leadership of the CEO and the Head Coach. My recommendations are the following:
- Since fitness is critical to performance and since many fans believe the cricketers are not fit, clear fitness criteria must be established, which if not met by any player, disentitles that player to selection.
- Recognize that sport, like other areas of activity, has both a physical and a mental dimension. When in the current Ashes series the Australian Haddin had a “personal problem”, he was spoken to by the team psychologist Michael Lloyd.
Follow the major teams and include a sports psychologist in the support staff. I believe the WI team needs one at least as much as the strongest team.
- In addition to the head coach the services should be retained of at least one coach for every area of the game, batting, fast bowling, slow bowling and fielding, even if that would require, for budgetary reasons, reducing staff in other areas.
The coaches should be required to specifically address special issues with which individual players are confronted, whether the player is or is not aware of the issue. They will not always have complete success, but certain problems will be ameliorated.
- The only criterion which selectors must consider is the likelihood of the player contributing to the success of the team.
- There must be at least two weeks intensive preparation in one location for all international encounters.
- The captain of the team must be someone who would be automatically selected if he were not the captain.
- The head coach must take control of strategic planning for games, and must not relinquish too much control to the captain even during the game, by devising creative methods of communication during games, consistent with the rules and spirit of the game.
- Players should be encouraged to play as much competitive cricket as possible by facilitating their involvement in overseas cricket, and whenever possible arranging competitive 4 day games in the region without regard to country identity of the players.
I am sure that there are other areas in which I can offer no help, but with regard to which the President and Head Coach must be prepared to listen.
Yours faithfully,
Romain Pitt
