Dear Editor,
It has been one decade now since I have been advocating for the post of West Indies Cricket Team Coach. Also, I am following the changes West Indies cricket is going through such as the hiring of Mr Jeffrey Dujon as the Head Coach. Since that time, I have not seen any significant improvement in the team’s performance. After Mr Dujon was not cutting it, the WICB went for two Australian coaches and several others, including Mr Jimmy Adams and the present coach who is also not getting the job done to improve West Indies cricket.
It is now high time that the WICB looked for a more professional person to bring out the best in our players and to choose the best team to represent our cricketing nations. If others are comfortable with the present team’s performance, I must say I am not impressed.
A few years back, I was asked to submit my vision for West Indies cricket, which I did. Those documents were submitted to Dr Peters. Those documents were not returned to me and upon enquiry, I was told that Dr Peters had flown back to Barbados. The documents hold key details on how to improve West Indies cricket.
With the demise of West Indies cricket and because of the lack of interest in the team, people are not travelling following the team. As such the airlines are affected, hotels, taxis,
restaurants, souvenir makers and other service providers are losing business. As a result of this, crime is also on the increase across the board since many are left unemployed. This leaves us with nothing to rejoice about since cricket means a lot to us in the Caribbean and to those who support West Indies cricket around the world. Let’s share some of the love that was here among us when West Indies cricket was in its glory days.
I must further reiterate that the present group of players is not having any impact on the youths. They are not copying them. On the current standing, West Indies is at No 9 on the cricket table.
Once given the opportunity, you will see a significant improvement in West Indies cricket which will result in us being the team to beat as it was in the 1980s and early 1990s when West Indies held the No one spot for over fifteen years. We know the talent is there, but it must be coordinated professionally. It is hard to read about the demise of West Indies cricket in the newspapers . We hope the WICB would understand how much cricket means to the Caribbean people ‒ St Lucians, Dominicans, Barbadians, Antiguans, Guyanese, Trinidadians, Jamaicans.
My motto is the present state of West Indies cricket. I have lost count of how many cricketing academies there are in the Caribbean. I would urge the Board to use what we have in the Caribbean as an alternative source of hiring. And I am calling on all those Caribbean countries to weigh in on this subject and foreign supporters as well.
‘Cricket is a game of shifting fortunes and glorious uncertainties.’
Yours faithfully,
C A Joseph