Dear Editor,
There are four main contributing factors to the continuing poor performances of the West Indies team in international cricket, especially in the longer forms of the game. Those factors are:
- West Indian management, in contradistinction to all others, makes no serious effort to blend experience with youth in team selection, as it operates with the firm belief that such a blend will make no difference; and that the youth will eventually mature and become competitive. That approach is demonstrably wrong.
- Management does not appreciate, or is unwilling to concede, that intense preparation is essential for success at the international level. For example the team for the just completed test match was assembled at most four days before the start of the game.
- Management has bought into the wrong-headed conventional wisdom that when cricketers have reached first class level it is no longer either necessary or possible to expose them to intensive coaching. Witness the limited numbers of coaches, the frequency and untimeliness with which coaches have been dismissed.
- Management does not acknowledge the critical importance of the mental element in success at the international level, and therefore makes no serious effort to have players involved in consistent mental gymnastics conducted by professionals, as a method of hardening, and building confidence.
There is a pressing need to attend to these matters.
Yours faithfully,
Romain Pitt.
